New e-portal to help admission to US universities

JEDDAH: The Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to the US has launched an electronic portal to link American universities with students to facilitate their academic admissions. The link is https://schoolsportal.sacm.org , and e-mail: sacm.org@sa.
The portal, named Academic Outreach Ambassador System, was launched with the support and supervision of the Ministry of Education on the sideline of the 39th meeting of the students’ clubs in Washington recently.
Mohammad bin Abdullah Al-Issa, the Saudi cultural attaché in the US, told local media that the objective of the portal is to help students acquire seats at distinguished universities and to contribute to distributing Saudi students across the universities that offer qualitative learning in certain specialties.
Al-Issa expressed the hope that students seriously deal with the details of the portal, stressing on the fact that the students should read the directions “carefully, and enter their data clearly to better serve the two sides with utmost professionalism.”
Mohammed Al-Abaishi, director of the Academic Accreditation Department who led the team, said the brainstorming sessions and the studies included partnerships with American universities to study the situation from all aspects.
“The sessions also included discussions with the students to collect as much data as possible to analyze and develop solutions and offer an innovative idea that is doable within our efforts to develop the scholarship program,” he said.
Al-Abaishi said the negotiations on the first phase resulted in signing more than 100 agreements with the recommended American universities, 40 of these universities are classified as “distinguished universities.”
“Work is still under way to sign more agreements with other recommended universities,” he added.
He said each American university has a page on the portal with a username and a password, the same applies for each student.
The portal will put a list of outstanding students in terms of the standard tests and the average scores to help them acquire seats at the best American universities, added Al-Abaishi.
Saudis have been studying in the US for decades, overseen by the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission, which was established in America 60 years ago. This was part of the government’s plan, now under Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, to ensure Saudis have skills to help the economy on their return home, the report stated.
King Salman had demonstrated his concern about the education of citizens when he visited the United States officially in 2015, where he met with a group of students studying in the country.