U.S. Universities Join Saudis in Partnerships

Three prominent American universities — the University of Texas at Austin http://www.utexas.edu/ , the University of California, Berkeley http://www.berkeley.edu/ , and Stanford University http://www.stanford.edu/ — are starting five-year partnerships, worth $25 million or more, with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a graduate-level research university being built in Saudi Arabia.

Under the agreements, the mechanical engineering department at Berkeley, the computer-science department and Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford, and the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas will help pick the faculty and develop the curriculum for the new university, known by the acronym Kaust, which is scheduled to open next year with a $10 billion endowment.

By TAMAR LEWIN

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/education/06partner.html?_r=1&oref=slogin