JEDDAH, 5 July 2006 — Three students and a professor from King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh have been awarded scholarships to undertake courses at a leading Italian university.

The professor and the three students met Italian Ambassador Eugenio d’Aura at his residence on Sunday. The Saudis are set to attend a range of courses at Perugia University in Umbria, Italy.

The scholarships have been awarded according to a cultural agreement between Saudi Arabia and Italy in 1973. Since that time several Saudis have been given scholarships to undertake courses in Italy.

Students Samy Al-Yahya and Ibrahim Al-Zubaidi will be attending an intensive Italian language and literature course at Perugia University. Fellow student Riad Al-Thobaity will be undertaking a single-year master degree course in tourism and KSU professor of Italian, Abdelrazek Abdul Aziz, will be attending a specialist course for teaching Italian to non-Italian speakers.

“It is something that we continue doing each year. These scholars were recommended by the KSU due to their high grades and achievement in mastering the Italian language,” the ambassador told Arab News.

Al-Thobaity said that he was looking forward to going to Italy. “Being there makes a lot of difference in learning. What you learn in years here can be learned in one month there,” he said.

Tourism has always been something Al-Thobaity has been interested in and he says learning about the subject in Italy, where culture and history is fascinating, would be helpful.

There is always a demand for practical learning here especially when having historical background that no one is capable of talking about and explaining its history to others, he added.

Perugia University is renowned worldwide for its specialty in teaching Italian to foreigners.