Culture & Education | Saturday 15 October, 2016 1:15 am |

The first medical university in the private sector will soon be established in Makkah. The university called “Makkah University’ will have all the medical specialties plus a university hospital. In the first phase, the university will have three faculties with a total of 1,000 boy and girl students. The university will start enrolling students in 2018.

Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, emir of Makkah and advisor to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, blessed the university initiative during a recent reception at his office in Makkah. The reception was attended by the university’s Executive Director General Dr. Khaled Dhafar, and members of the board of directors, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Speaking on the occasion, Prince Khaled stressed the importance of the private sector’s participation in the nation building process. “It is highly significant to achieve progress and development on the level of human resources and development of the regions,” he said.

Dr. Al-Dhafar briefed the emir on the salient features of the university project. “In the first phase, the university will have three faculties of medicine, medical sciences and nursing with a capacity of 1,000 students.
The project also includes a university hospital with a capacity of 200 beds in the initial phase and that will be expanded to a 400-bed hospital in future,” he said.

Dr. Al-Dhafar said the hospital will have all the major departments such as medicine, surgery, maternity, obstetrics and gynecology, intensive care units for elders and children, neonatal, and external clinics. The hospital will charge reasonable rates for the treatment. Construction of the university will be completed within one year and it will be operational with admission of students starting in the Hijri year of 1439 (2018). The university hospital will be operational by 2019, he said.

According to Al-Dhafar, Makkah University has signed cooperation agreements with world-class universities. These included two agreements with American universities and one with a British institution. “These agreements aimed at making available of access to highly advanced studies in the medical field. The university and hospital will strive to achieve excellence in innovation and advanced medical sciences,” he added.