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The president of Saudi Arabia’s flagship graduate research university has rejected calls for him to condemn restrictions on freedom of speech in the country. Jean-Lou Chameau, the president of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), told Times Higher Education that universities have to reflect the societies within which they exist, and that the greatest long-term impact would be achieved by instilling the values of openness and creativity in a generation of graduates.
The former president of the California Institute of Technology was speaking amid continuing international outcry about the imprisonment and public flogging of Raif Badawi, a blogger who criticised Saudi Arabia’s clerics. In January, 18 Nobel laureates wrote to Prof. Chameau, calling for “influential voices” in KAUST to be “heard arguing for the freedom to dissent, without which no institution of higher learning can be viable”. Some have interpreted the letter, which counted South African novelist J. M. Coetzee among its signatories, as a warning that KAUST could be marginalised by international scholars unless it does more to further freedom of speech.
But Prof. Chameau says he has never used his position as a higher education leader to speak out about “political issues”. “I believe we have to remain focused on developing the university’s science programme and on educating young people in an environment that is open, diverse and creative. It is always easy to criticise organisations or universities, but we have to remember that different parts of the world work in different ways,” he says.
According to Chameau, openness and diversity are enshrined in KAUST’s royal charter, granted by the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in 2009, adding that researchers are free to publish and discuss their work “as they want”. KAUST is unique in the country in allowing women to be educated alongside men. On campus, women are not required to wear a veil and are allowed to drive.
Some observers question whether the accession of King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, after the death earlier this year of King Abdullah, will lead to the implementation of more conservative education policies, or curtailment of the scholarship programme that has allowed thousands of young Saudis to study in foreign universities. However, Chameau says he has seen “no sign” of any change in government policy and adds that he is proud that 35 percent of KAUST’s students are women. Having a diverse student body, he says, is “part of the DNA of KAUST”.
When King Abdullah founded KAUST, he gave it a massive $10 billion (Rs.62,360 crore) endowment with the aim of rekindling science in the Arab world and building a knowledge-based economy in Saudi Arabia. Having recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, the institution now hosts 840 students, 132 academic staff and 401 postdoctoral researchers.
However, Chameau declines to reiterate the target set under his predecessor, Choon Fong Shih, for KAUST to be ranked among the world’s Top 10 science and technology universities by 2020. “Whatever was said at the time, becoming a destination university, an Imperial College London or a Stanford, doesn’t happen overnight,” says Prof. Chameau. “It’s based on many years, sometimes decades, of great accomplishments, and what your graduates do. You become great when your graduates go into the world and do great things elsewhere.”
(Excerpted and adapted from )