King Saud University of Science and Technology is located at the seaside 80 kilometers north of Jeddah. The school has free buses to and from major shopping centers and hospitals in Jeddah every day, as well as special lines to Mecca and Medina. The building area is over 36 square kilometers, including a coral reef ecosystem, which will be used as a marine reserve of the university for research.
The university campus has its own desalination plant to ensure the normal water demand of the campus. There are also two free sports colleges, a golf course and a Red Sea diving club for all students, professors and employees. The school provides a very elegant accommodation environment for every student. Doctoral students can apply for single double-decker apartments. Each apartment includes living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, guest room and other rooms, and is equipped with daily appliances such as kitchen, refrigerator, TV, washing machine and dryer. Both master's and master's students can live in apartments for two or three people. The configuration is similar to that of doctoral students, but there is more space. The university officially opened in September 2009, with about 500 graduate students enrolled. With the world's top scientific research equipment and strong project financial support, only master students and doctoral students were enrolled in 2009.
The treatment of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, for an assistant professor who has just obtained a doctorate, is about two to three times that of an American university, and the overseas living allowance of 50% of his salary is about three to four times that of his American counterparts. The starting salary of general assistant professors in American universities is 50,000-80,000 dollars a year (about 7,654,380+065,438+2,000 Singapore dollars), while the salary in Kauste is 6,543,800 dollars a year, plus 50% overseas allowance, which is 6,543,800-240,000 dollars a year. The salaries of associate professors and professors can be several times higher according to their work experience and achievements.
According to the data, the research funds provided by the school according to the professional title are as follows:
Assistant professor: $400,000/year;
Associate Professor: $600,000/year;
Full professor: 800,000 USD/year. University of Excellence Alliance Project
With the idea of establishing a world university, the special envoy of the King of Saudi Arabia found two well-known consulting companies, Stanford Research Institute and Washington Consulting Group. After fully understanding the king's vision and determination, two consulting companies concluded a month later that if you want to build a world-class university as the king wishes, KAUST must:
1) only enrolls graduate students and doctoral students.
2) Abandon the traditional system of colleges and other departments and establish a high-tech interdisciplinary center.
3) Schools must provide the best laboratories and scientific research equipment in the world.
4) Schools must establish western-style articles of association, and independent directors composed of internationally renowned scholars and professors must manage universities, not the Saudi Ministry of Education.
Finally, the king agreed to all the requirements. Soon, KAUST's related preparations and publicity work were launched around the world.
"KAUST will become the top 20 universities of science and technology in the world in 10. Obviously, no university has reached this speed so far, "said Ross Blatter from Berkeley University. It took Berkeley 40 years to become a first-class university, and Stanford 60 years. For a new university, it takes some time to attract top scholars and students in the world. Especially for a university of science and technology, the most important thing is to quickly establish cooperation with the world's top universities and weave an "academic exchange network" to allow scholars and students to flow frequently between universities and break the monopoly. Today's world-class universities "either grow rapidly within the network or slowly decline outside the network"
KAUST has established a cooperative alliance with top universities in the world. All 1 1 specialties of Kauste University have established deep alliances and cooperation agreements with top universities in the world.
KAUST did not disclose how much money it invested in the alliance cooperation signed with other universities in the early stage, but according to different sources, KAUST has invested about 500 million dollars in the alliance cooperation with the world's top 12- 13 universities, and the remaining 500 million dollars are being invested. Among them: Stanford (Stanford University) computer science 60 million (US$ 60 million) Berkeley (Berkeley University) mechanical engineering 36 million (US$ 36 million) Cambridge (Cambridge University) biological science 35 million (US$ 35 million) TUM (technical university of munich) chemistry, mathematics without data (National University of Singapore) applied chemical science without data Cornell University (Cornell University) It is believed that the funding range of other allied universities is 8 million to 25 million US dollars (8 million to 25 million US dollars).
In addition, KAUST has established:
Global research cooperation center ($5 million to $25 million for the establishment of research centers)
Academic Excellence Alliance (in addition to research, it also provides about $25 million in courses and recruitment advice)
Of course, not all universities and departments are full of confidence in such alliances and cooperation. After Berkeley department of mechanical engineering and KAUST reached the Berkeley-KAUST alliance and cooperation agreement, the Committee of Civil Engineering Department of Berkeley University refused to reach an alliance and cooperation agreement with KAUST. "Top universities should be rooted in their culture and society, but compared with Saudi Arabia, Kauste is like a paradise," said Armen Der Kiureghian, dean of the School of Civil Engineering.
What benefits can KAUST get from the alliance by paying such a high cooperation fee? Professor Jean-Claude Latombe, who is in charge of signing the agreement, said: As far as computer science is concerned, in addition to the student exchange program, we will also help KAUST quickly establish a world-class computing laboratory. Scholars will visit KAUST regularly, hold seminars, work in KAUST or establish joint laboratories with Professor KAUST. Of course, it's much more than that. KAUST has gained a reputation from the most outstanding computer science department in the world. The process of establishing an alliance with Stanford University is actually the process of the two universities advancing and retreating together. Because of this, as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, we are also very cautious when choosing our partners. Undoubtedly, more graduates will apply for KAUST, and KAUST will get better students because of the ongoing Stanford -KAUST alliance agreement. KAUST has established cooperation agreements with top universities such as Berkeley, Stanford and Cambridge at an incredible speed, and there is a trend of closer and lasting cooperation. From this perspective, KAUST undoubtedly knows the development law of modern universities, and I can't think of a reason to prevent KAUST from becoming a world-class university. This close alliance and cooperation model is unique. As far as I know, it never happened between universities. Only the National Science Foundation and Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute have done similar cooperation projects.
China University Cooperation Project
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia has a strong faculty, world-class scientific research hardware resources and environment, and only conducts postgraduate and doctoral education. In recent years, it has maintained close scientific research partnership with many domestic C9 alliance universities, and carried out strategic double-degree cooperation with Chinese Academy of Sciences.
UCAS-KAUST dual-degree joint training program
On February 20 1 1, NUUST and KAUST formally signed a student exchange agreement to establish the UCAS-KAUST dual-degree program. According to the agreement, on the basis of mutual recognition and joint guidance of course credits, the two sides jointly funded the students of the National Science and Technology University. Among them, KAUST provides our students with full scholarships and opportunities to study in this university. Students participating in this project will receive degrees and diplomas from the University of Science and Technology of China and KAUST.
Industrial cooperation project
The resources provided by Kauste Industrial Cooperation Project (KICP) have enriched Kauste's research, latest technology, talent pool, seminars, symposiums and other scientific activities. The purpose of KICP project is to establish a fruitful partnership with industry, so that it can bring lasting benefits to Kauste and KICP members.
Bill Gates visited KAUST, participated in a round table discussion on agricultural research under drought conditions with teachers of KAUST, and sought cooperative research between KAUST and Gates Foundation. At the same time, Mr. Gates also visited the research results of KAUST world-class laboratory, such as innovative water-saving and sustainable food production and development system.