The Saudi Cultural Mission (SACM) in Australia has recently launched an orientation program for the Saudi sponsored students as part of SACM’s developmental programs aimed at raising the awareness and offering guidance to students. The program is delivered to students whether before or during their scholarship in a tailored and innovated manner. Studies made by SACM showed that most issues and difficulties encountered by some sponsored students are attributed to lack of their knowledge of proper regulations and procedures. That is why this Orientation Program has been developed, in order to help minimizing such issues and saving time and efforts.
SACM’s Orientation Program is a short training course that a student can register for and complete online. The program provides the student with key information he/she would need to know during their scholarship, including regulations, instructions, FAQs and some guiding videos. The program ends with an information test where the student is required to answer 20 questions which will qualify him/her for a certificate of completion sent automatically to the student by email.
The Cultural Attaché, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Abdulaziz Bin Taleb confirmed that SACM, in line with its educational and cultural principles, is highly interested in the orientation and evaluation. As to orientation, SACM has implemented many developmental programs including upgrade of its website which contains a huge volume of procedural and other information that is very useful for sponsored students before and during the scholarship. In the beginning of 2014, SACM also produced the Legal Guide, and will encourage sponsoring bodies in Saudi Arabia to acquaint their sponsored students with these programs and resources, before they travel from Saudi Arabia. As to evaluation, SACM is so keen to constantly evaluate its performance by canvassing students’ feedback and monitoring their satisfaction of SACM’s services.
SACM has implemented seven programs to monitor and evaluate its performance, including the recently launched Student Satisfaction Survey. The purpose of this biannual survey is to know how much students are satisfied of SACM’s services, to evaluate the performance of the academic advisors and to identify points of strength and enhance them toward a continuous improvement. This survey is one of several developmental programs conducted by SACM’s Quality and Development Unit. To visit the program page, please click here.
