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RIYADH: New global trends such as micro-credentials, virtual reality and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence chatbots such as ChatGPT and Jasper, are reshaping the future of higher education in the Kingdom and beyond.
Online learning became dominant after the COVID-19 pandemic, and academic institutions with prior investment in digital technologies emerged as more resilient and agile.
Professor Santiago Iniguez de Onzono, executive president of IE University in Madrid, said: “Legislation here has been reluctant to bring in online education in pair with other traditional arrangements of education.
“But the fact is that we at IE University have experienced that the best methodology for enhancing skills and developing attitudes and upskilling is using the blended format, that combines presence with an online form of education.”
It (Saudi Vision 2030’s Human Capability DevelopmentProgram) will render lots of positive results in future generations.
Santiago Iniguez de Onzono, IE University executive president
Iniguez is a pioneer in business education, actively contributing and participating in various forums and networks to foster innovation and development in higher education.
He was described by the Financial Times as “one of the most significant figures in promoting European business schools internationally.”
According to the professor, among the challenges facing higher education is preparing faculty, traditionally a group “that are difficult to move because they normally hold tenure for life, and they are sometimes quite comfortable doing their traditional research.” That can result in not prioritizing teaching, engaging with students and participating in class.
“I guess the challenge here to embrace these new opportunities for technology is to prepare the faculty to become the orchestrators of the whole learning process and the best possible managers of artificial intelligence,” he said.
The Human Capability Development Program, one of the Vision 2030 programs, focuses on developing a solid education base for all Saudis from an early age, by instilling values, developing current and future skills, enhancing their knowledge, and preparing them for the future local and global labor market.
“My first reaction is of admiration regarding the very ambitious objectives of the program,” Iniguez said.
The program includes early childhood education and the Kingdom now requires and promotes preschool education.
“That will render lots of positive results in future generations. It is already proven how the Chinese young generation has become much more competent, and motivated in areas like math and languages because of this emphasis on kindergarten education,” he said.
The program works to align the education output with labor market needs, which is another challenge facing many countries.
According to Iniguez, one of the criticisms of the US has been that universities do not prepare graduates to directly join the labor market. However, he believes that “universities should not just prepare employable graduates, but also global citizens, and part of the university has to do with putting and instilling these skills and global feelings, of belonging and respecting basic norms of tolerance to learn from others, to learn from diversity.”
He has closely worked with the higher education sector in the Kingdom as a consultant. In increasing the presence of IE University, Iniguez has worked with Saudi governmental agencies and has attracted several Saudi students to programs directed by the university.
“We are currently already running a master’s degree program, collaborating masters for a number of companies here including Aramco and stc (Saudi Telecom Company),” Iniguez said.
Iniguez was in Riyadh recently to launch his book “Philosophy Inc.: Applying Wisdom to Everyday Management.”
The book revolves around the central idea of management as philosophy in action.
“Behind any major management decision, there’s always a vision of the world, there’s a vision of what is business and how should business be,” Iniguez said.
The book discussions include leadership, the types of leaders the world needs, how to manage uncertainty, and how to make a good atmosphere at work as “two-thirds of our life is spent working, if we are not happy at work, then we have a problem,” he said.
RIYADH: For years, flipping through magazines and passing by billboards guided people to products. Today, technology and innovation have shifted marketing tactics to the digital realm.
Artist and marketeer Jeed told Arab News that “the adverts and typical detergent ads where the little football player falls and they put in the detergent and split the screen … that’s not working anymore.”
Commenting on the sophistication of consumers, he added: “No one is only from Saudi, the Emirates or France. They’re also from the Internet.”
Jeed has made a name for himself regionally as a rapper, but the Saudi creative has much more than sly hooks and fresh sounds under his belt.
For the first time, he talks about the “accidental” founding of the creative marketing agency Hrmny Creative Co., the new age of marketing, and shaping identity as an artist.
In the past, the agency has acquired high-profile clients, including NEOM, Puma, Reebok and Albaik.
• Saudi rapper Jeed is the founder of the marketing agency Hrmny Creative Co.
• The ‘From the Sand’ rapper is on Apple Music’s ‘Rap Life’ playlist, alongside names such as Drake and Lil Baby.
• The agency has acquired high-profile clients, including NEOM, Puma, Reebok and Albaik.
Far from a typical agency, it includes Hrmny + Lab, which offers a library of royalty-free sounds for music production, and Hrmny Records, a label formed in partnership with Empire Inc.
Jeed, producer A’Y, and artist Moh Flow originally came together to collaborate as musicians, and eventually created their own content and event planning. By managing their own social media, community engagement, and analytics, they realized their potential.
Jeed explained the origins of the idea: “It was like a light-bulb moment. These are services that we’re doing. We worked with small companies in the beginning, then we found our way to Saudi.
“We opened an office in 2019, and we were there for a gig, actually. I said, if I get one more client in Saudi, I’m not leaving. And we got one.”
Originally kicking off in Dubai with a focus on social media and music, their work has grown to reflect the nuances of an evolving region by blending corporate and pop culture.
“We walk a fine line between the two. It’s this duality that we have going on which is the new Saudi in my opinion,” he said.
The agency is gaining ground by knowing the Saudi audience.
You have stories in Riyadh, Alkhobar; you have Gen Z, older folks; you have heritage. There are so many layers to unfold. Saudi Arabia also changed. As marketing companies, it’s our job to communicate the new Saudi as well, because that is our direction.
Jeed, Saudi rapper and founder of Hrmny Creative Co.
Last year, for example, Saudia Airlines was criticized for a commercial featuring Senegalese American singer Akon wearing an Emirati thobe on a Eid holiday ad campaign. The ad was turned into a meme, and mocked for its inaccurate representation.
It was a lesson on the importance of local knowledge.
“You have to tell the Saudi story. You can’t sidestep that at all. I find some agencies struggle when they first go (to Saudi Arabia). It’s because they may not have lived there,” Jeed said.
In a customs and culture-driven country, the key to a successful marketing strategy lies in highlighting its homegrown roots.
“You have stories in Riyadh, Alkhobar; you have Gen Z, older folks; you have heritage. There are so many layers to unfold. Saudi Arabia also changed. As marketing companies, it’s our job to communicate the new Saudi as well, because that is our direction.”
Music, like other products, is also sold as a commodity on the global market. But the post-2000s digital revolution has made it more accessible than ever, creating a more intimate experience for fans. According to Jeef, rather than marketing music itself, the artist is now the face of the product.
As a musician taking on the role of a marketeer, he emphasizes the importance of narrating a story, unlike the past where the public found exclusivity and mystery more intriguing.
He said: “Now, the face sells everything. That goes back to artistry as well. I come from the era where your face doesn’t matter so much, where you don’t do too many interviews, you don’t do behind the scenes too much.
“People had mystique. In today’s world, you can’t do that anymore. They want way more than the music.”
However, with a more flexible mold for advertising, one bolstered by creativity, artists have become more of a self-standing brand. International artists such as Frank Ocean rarely share posts, and when they do, it’s the talk of their fanbase, while others like SZA have made a habit of posting nonchalant photo dumps, making their brand much more personal, like their music. Jeed, meanwhile, has kept a minimal online presence.
“I know what works, and what brands should do is very different from what your personal brand should do,” he said.
The tactic has seemed to work for the “From the Sand” rapper, landing him on Apple Music’s “Rap Life” playlist, alongside names such as Drake and Lil Baby, on the “New Gulf” playlist, and others on Spotify and Anghami.
He has performed on the Soundstorm Music Festival stage in Riyadh, Sole DXB in Dubai, and most recently at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creatives in Cannes in June. He was not always the type to flaunt his nationality, but quickly realized what a positive impact that could create.
He said: “Putting myself out there changed so much by saying I’m Saudi. That was step one. Step two was how could I incorporate that musically?”
While Jeed sometimes gets criticized for claiming to be a Saudi rapper while promoting English lyrics, his songs are littered with Saudi cultural anecdotes: the chicken nuggets from Albaik, pronouncing Pepsi as “Bebsi,” and getting Nova chewing gum at the baqala instead of change in coins.
His latest single “Spaceship” includes the lyrics “I’m so Saudi, man, I’m so Vimto,” and others that are relatable to locals.
Jeed’s message to upcoming artists is to just be yourself.
“There’s nothing called you’re ‘not Saudi enough,’ or you’re ‘too Saudi.’ There’s nothing called only do it in Arabic or only do it in English. What makes sense for you?”
It wasn’t long ago when Afrobeat and Latin pop were niche genres, but now they top the global charts. With an authentic approach, he believes Saudi talent could go much further than the region.
With a vision to build over 200 sq. km of integrated neighborhoods that embody the Kingdom’s cultural heritage and the aspirations of its inhabitants, ROSHN has established the Enterprise Portfolio Management Office to oversee and manage its diverse range of projects.
Hadi Sami Eissa leads the implementation of ROSHN’s EPMO while collaborating with various functions and departments within the organization. Eissa has been a key contributor to the ROSHN portfolio since joining in 2018.
Over the course of his 22-year career in the US and Saudi Arabia, Eissa has developed expertise in managing large-scale projects and driving programs to completion. He has proven himself as a seasoned EPMO professional capable of leading cross-functional teams.
One of Eissa’s key contributions to ROSHN is the optimization of its portfolio management efforts through the implementation of a robust operational governance framework. Heading a dedicated team, he oversees a comprehensive range of services for ROSHN’s portfolio.
With Eissa at the helm of ROSHN’s EPMO, the organization is poised to effectively manage its extensive portfolio, ensuring that projects are delivered on time and in line with approved plans and targets.
Prior to joining ROSHN, Eissa worked for international consultancies such as Parsons and Faithful + Gould.
He holds a master’s degree in project management from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from California State University, Sacramento. Eissa has earned certifications as a project management professional and a professional engineer from the State of California.
LONDON: The Saudi Falcons Aerobatic Team have arrived in the UK to participate in the Royal International Air Tattoo, one of the world’s largest airshows, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday. The event runs from July 14 to 16 at the RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
The Falcons — the Royal Saudi Air Force’s official demonstration team — will perform at the event, flying Airbus 330 MRTTs, BAE Systems Hawks, and Lockheed C-130H Hercules.
The tattoo, which was first staged in 1985, will include hundreds of modern military aircraft alongside classic aircraft from all corners of the globe.
This year’s event is being held under the theme “Skytanker23” and will focus on the vital role of air-to-air refueling in modern military aviation.
“We aim to display the history of air-to-air refueling from its humble beginnings in 1923, evolving through the last century to the modern aircraft which we see in service around the world today,” the RIAT website states.
RIYADH: The Saudi minister of commerce and chairman at the General Authority for Foreign Trade chaired in Riyadh this week a preparation meeting ahead of upcoming Free Trade Agreement talks between Gulf States and the UK, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The meeting, headed up by Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi, aims to prepare for the fourth round of free trade agreement negotiations between Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the UK taking place from July 17-28.
The fourth round will be held in two sessions; remote as well as in-person meetings in London.
During the meeting, deputy governor of the Commission for International Organizations and Agreements, Farid bin Saeed Al-Asali, reviewed the progress of the negotiations.
He outlined the terms of the agreement with the heads of the negotiating technical teams in addition to discussing topics related to commodities, rules of origin, investment, and services, electronic commerce, and general texts and provisions, the SPA report said.
The Saudi negotiating team is working to ensure their compatibility with the Kingdom’s commercial goals and policies, to participate in trade negotiations to include its negotiating positions and coordinate with countries with similar orientations in international trade, the report added.
LONDON: It takes courage and vision to make contemporary additions to precious heritage buildings in a bid to grant them a new lease of life, but the results are almost always successful and dramatic.
London, for example, has the Great Court of the British Museum, the striking turn-of-the-millennium transformation of the 19th-century building by renowned architect Sir Norman Foster, which when completed in 1999 created a breathtaking enclosed space uniting the two wings of the building under a gigantic roof of glass and steel.
In Paris, architect Ieoh Ming Pei’s imposing glass pyramid in the main courtyard of the Louvre was described as “sacrilegious” when the design, sheltering a vast new underground entrance lobby, was proposed in 1984 as a solution to the museum’s inability to handle the ever-increasing number of visitors drawn to the city’s number-one attraction.
Initially, as The New York Times reported in 1985, the design was described variously as “an architectural joke,” “an eyesore,” “an anachronistic intrusion of Egyptian death symbolism in the middle of Paris” and “a megalomaniacal folly.”
Today, however, the Louvre would not be the Louvre without its pyramid, and its attendant three smaller siblings, beloved of Parisians and photographed by tourists almost as much as the museum’s star attraction, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Less well known globally, but equally striking, is the ancient-and-modern blend that is Moritzburg Castle in Halle, near Leipzig, Germany. In 2008 the crumbling remnants of the 15th-century building, in neglected near-ruin for centuries, were not restored, but recruited as component parts of the thoroughly contemporary modern art museum that appeared to grow up organically out of the remains.
“By this means,” as the Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt cultural foundation said, “the palace and its colorful history have successfully been artistically brought into the present . . . Moritzburg Castle’s present architectural appearance thus also stands for the museum’s new beginnings at the start of the 21st century.”
Now the same might be said of a bold new plan to build a luxury boutique hotel within the precincts of the Saudi UNESCO World Heritage site of Hegra at AlUla.
The Chedi Hegra, due to open by the end of this year, is being constructed not as a standalone addition to one of the most dramatic landscapes Saudi Arabia has to offer, but by making imaginative use of a number of old buildings, including two outstanding pieces of architecture steeped in history — the Madaen Saleh railway station, a stop on the historic Hejaz railway that ran from Damascus to Madinah, and the adjacent Ottoman fort, one of a series built in the 18th century to protect pilgrims traveling to Makkah.
The history of this region is as rich as it is long. The Hegra archaeological area, which in 2008 became the first property in Saudi Arabia to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, is the largest conserved site of the Nabataean civilization south of Petra in Jordan.
At its heart is a stunning necropolis of 111 monumental tombs, most with decorated facades, carved out of the surrounding sandstone rocks between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century AD.
Earlier civilizations left their mark here too. Located in a valley settled from remote antiquity thanks to the presence of ample subterranean water, in this location before the rise of the Nabataeans ruled the sheikdom of Dadan, and then the Kingdom of Lihyan, both of which left traces of their passing in the rocks and the sand.
Ancient Hegra, as the UNESCO nomination document attests, was “at the crossroad of international trade and of different cultures and civilizations, and played a key role in the exchange of goods and cultural traditions between Arabia and the Mediterranean world, becoming a wealthy and important halt for the caravans crossing the Arabian Peninsula carrying incense and spices from Yemen and India.”
And more recent history, no less fascinating, can be found within the UNESCO site, including the path of one of the three great Hajj pilgrimage routes, all of which are on Saudi Arabia’s UNESCO Tentative List as potential future World Heritage Sites.
Alongside the Darb Zubaydah, which linked the Iraqi city of Kufa to Makkah, and the Egyptian Hajj road, from Haqel on the Gulf of Aqaba, runs the Syrian Hajj road from Damascus, which passed through AlUla on its way south to Makkah.
• The Hegra archaeological area is the largest conserved site of the Nabataean civilization south of Petra in Jordan.
• In 2008 the area became the first property in Saudi Arabia to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
• The area contains a necropolis of 111 tombs carved out of sandstone rocks between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century AD.
In addition to its Islamic heritage, this is a road that was traveled for centuries by traders and Bedouin, many of whom left their marks in ancient rock carvings along the route.
The square, thick-walled Hegra fortress, which dates from 1744 to 1757 and has an ancient well in its courtyard, was one of the many forts built to protect the pilgrims’ routes to Makkah.
It was partially renovated in 1985, and not for the first time — it is thought that it was previously restored in the late Ottoman period, probably when the railway station was built, in about 1906.
The historic Hejaz railway, which ran 1,300 km from Damascus to Madinah, was built by the Ottoman Empire before World War I and followed the course of the old Syrian pilgrimage caravan route.
The 700 km section of the railway that ran through what is now Saudi Arabia is also on UNESCO’s Tentative List as a potential World Heritage site of universal importance.
One of the great engineering achievements of its day — and all the more significant historically because its construction was funded by donations from Islamic communities around the world — the railway reduced the journey time for pilgrims to Makkah from about six weeks to just a few days.
The railway was also used to carry Ottoman forces south to maintain Turkish control over the Hejaz, but after being repeatedly attacked and disabled during World War I by T.E. Lawrence (“of Arabia”) and the forces of the Arab Revolt, it fell into disuse, never to be restored.
Today, traces of the railway can still be seen all along its route — tracks, half-buried in sand, toppled engines lying where they fell after being blown up by mines more than a century ago, and more than 2,000 bridges and other structures along its total length.
Now, both the railway station and the Ottoman fort are to find a new lease of life as component parts of the new hotel, as part of the broader determination in a Saudi Arabia focused on diversifying away from dependence on fossil fuels to attract visitors by making the most of its many heritage assets.
This is, of course, not the first time that ancient and modern have been brought together as Saudi Arabia pursues its ambitious plans to develop the country’s potential as a hub for cultural tourism.
Until now, perhaps the most striking example of this determination not to treat heritage assets as museum pieces, frozen in time, but to breathe new life into them as key attractions is the preservation of Diriyah, birthplace of the Kingdom, as the jewel at the heart of the architecturally sympatico Diriyah Gate development just west of Riyadh.
But the plan for Hegra, executed audaciously and confidently within the bounds of a World Heritage site, sets a new standard for bold reimagination of heritage assets.
And this is about far more than merely the creation of yet another luxury hotel. The Chedi Hegra, the first hotel planned for the World Heritage site, is part of the wider mission of the Royal Commission for AlUla, working with local and international experts in archaeology, heritage conservation and preservation, architecture and master planning “to deliver an environmentally and historically sensitive transformation of AlUla.”
RCU is building the hotel directly into several existing structures, including the railway station and Hegra Fort, with existing structural and exterior walls, some of which are of historic mud-brick construction, being preserved and integrated with the modern architecture.
The vast majority of the UNESCO World Heritage site, says RCU, “will remain untouched by construction and carefully preserved by RCU to maintain the integrity of Hegra’s incredible human and natural heritage.”
The Chedi Hegra, says John Northen, the RCU’s vice president of hotels and resorts, “embodies the fulfilment of our Journey Through Time master plan, with its deep respect for heritage, sustainable design features, and an authentic luxury experience that celebrates what makes AlUla a special destination for travelers seeking both comfort and adventure.”
READ MORE: The Journey Through Time: A master plan for preserving and sustainably developing Saudi Arabia’s ancient AlUla
Equally important, with the relatively modest but pioneering Chedi Hegra — the construction of which will use local materials, businesses and labor, and when up and running is expected to create at least 120 jobs — the RCU is demonstrating its determination to work hand in hand with the local community and to “invest in education and learning for AlUla’s next generation and create training and employment opportunities for its people.”
In AlUla, thanks to a bold and imaginative blending of the old and the new, Saudi Arabia is demonstrating how its past can play an increasingly important role in its future.
