Culture & Education | Friday 27 November, 2015 4:42 am |

Jeddah’s Fakieh Aquarium and the city’s leading university for women, Dar Al-Hekma (DAH) have announced the signing of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that creates a framework for future cooperation between the two cultural and educational mainstays. The agreement will see Fakieh Aquarium increase its education-oriented profile while providing students with lectures and real-life experience with the marine sciences.

The memorandum was signed by Mr. Jamil Attar, the Executive Director at Fakieh Leisure and Entertainment Group - Tarfeeh Fakieh and Dr. Suhair Al Qurashi, president of Dar Al- Hekma University, where the ceremony was celebrated and attended by officials from the Aquarium and university.

“We think that it is very important for Jeddah’s cultural and educational milieu to combine our resources with those of the prestigious Dar Al-Hekma to further the knowledge of the intricacies and significance of life beneath the surface of the world’s bodies of water and with this memorandum we are aiming for a long relationship which will go on to enrich the young population of the Kingdom on its prized nature” said Jamil Attar.

Added Dr. Suhair of Dar Al-Hekma, “Students need to understand that higher education is not confined to the classroom. It would be irresponsible of us not to engage with Fakieh Aquarium to introduce students to this great educational and cultural resource.”

The MOU outlines three specific areas of cooperation between the two entities, first Marine Life, a DAH course, will be offered to DAH students under the Science & Health Cluster of the General Education Department, in collaboration with Fakieh Aquarium, starting from the Fall Semester of 2015. Second,   Fakieh Aquarium biologists will conduct guest lectures at DAH for students enrolled in the Marine Life course and finally The Marine Life course will include a segment taught in three lab sessions at the Aquarium.

Fakieh Aquarium has become one of Jeddah’s premier cultural institutions in its three years of existence and the MOU with DAH is expected to enhance its visibility in Jeddah’s increasingly important cultural milieu while furthering its mission to promote the conservation of the environment by spreading awareness through education and entertainment.

Dar Al-Hekma, already Jeddah’s most-respected women’s college, will now be able to expose its marine life science students, as well as those in other disciplines, to real-world professional biologists who successfully made the move from the educational world to the professional world.