His Excellency the UQU President, Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail, on Thursday, honored the participants in the second training program for preparing academic leaders, which was directed to enhancing the performance of the college deans and vice-deans. This program was organized by the Deanship of Development and Quality, in collaboration with the Expertise House for Accreditation and Development Consultancies at King Abdul-Aziz University and along with a number of academic experts. The activity took place in the presence of the Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Hani bin Uthman Ghazi, as well as the Dean of Academic Development and Quality, Dr. Muhammad Thabit, college vice deans, and 100 program participants from the vice deans of the different colleges, including both males and females, who formed the youth leaders of the university.

His Excellency the UQU President stressed the importance of training and developing the leadership skills of the academic staff members, noting that training contributes to the development of the administrative work system and helps equip the trainees with various leadership skills.

His Excellency said that the advantages of such programs and workshops will reflect positively on the performance of the trainees. These events are also part of the plans set by the university to qualify its leaders, in line with the objectives of the current stage, in order to live up to the aspirations of the country's wise leadership (may Allah support it).

Dr. Hani bin Uthman Ghazi, Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship, clarified that the program aims at qualifying the university leadership to effectively manage and lead the academic institutions. It focuses on enabling the participants to explore the future and the challenges it may present to university education, and to develop leadership practice through profound knowledge of personal abilities. This goes side by side with the development of leadership skills through training, synchronization, and mentorship, in addition to keeping pace with the new orientations of the Saudi Vision 2030. The program combines training and cooperative education to develop the skills of young academic leaders at the university into effective competencies. Finally, he highlighted the care His Excellency the UQU President, Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail, showed towards supporting these important programs for the improvement of leadership quality in the university.

On his part, the Dean of Academic Development and Quality, Dr. Muhammad Thabit, said that the program comes within the framework of the programs that are being organized by the Deanship of Academic Development and Quality to qualify the university's leadership and staff. He added that the program lasted for ten weeks and offered a variety of workshops on leadership, empowerment, strategy-making, personal productivity, and leadership skills. It included approximately 15 activities, grouped into four main categories: leadership parameters, workshops, transfer of experience in leadership, partnership and mentoring.