King Saud University Professors and Dean Clarke.

Three Professors Pay Visit to Grady College Discussing Curricular Reform and Future Collaboration

The chairman of the Department of Mass Communication at Saudi Arabia’s King Saud University and two of his faculty colleagues spent two days at the University of Georgia in February discussing curricular reform in mass communication education and the operation of specialized units that foster research and provide outreach to the media communities.

During the visit, Dr. Ibrahim Al Beayeyz and faculty members Dr. Hamzah Bait-Almal and Dr. Fahd Al-Tayash watched students in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication produce their daily nightly television newscast and met with students at the independent study daily, The Red & Black.

The trio also met with Grady College Dean E. Culpepper Clark and other administrators and faculty in the College as well as with online educational specialists and university officials in charge of international exchange programs.
During meeting with Dr. Ann Hollifield.

The visit was organized by the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, a unit of the Grady College dedicated to international outreach activities. Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox Center, visited King Saud University at the invitation of Dr. Dr. Ibrahim Al Beayeyz in February of 2007.

Dr. Ibrahim Al Beayeyz and his colleagues visited four American universities to discuss curricular issues and examine the operation of journalism and mass communication programs. Following the visit to the University of Georgia on February 11 and 12, the group traveled to the University of Texas, to Arizona State University and to Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

According to Dr. Ibrahim Al Beayeyz, King Saud University is interested in making its curriculum more responsive to the current labor market for journalism and mass communication graduates and was particularly interested in discussing Cox Center research on the labor market.

The Cox Center is home to the Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates, a longitudinal study of experiences of students completing programs in journalism and mass communication in the United States.
Visiting Professors with Broadcast Journalism Students.

The King Saud faculty also discussed the operation of the Cox Center, which was created in 1985 to link the expertise of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication to the communication world beyond the U.S. borders and to give faculty and students in the Grady College opportunities to learn about global issues in the field.

During their first day at the University of Georgia, the Saudis were guests of Dr. Tudor Vlad, associate director of the Cox Center, at the Rotary Club of the Classic City, one of two such groups in Athens. At the luncheon meeting, the trio had the opportunity to meet local business and community leaders.

“We are honored and delighted that Dr. Ibrahim and his colleagues chose to visit the Grady College,” Dr. Becker said. “We look forward to future collaboration with King Saud and the opportunities to share experiences such a collaboration will provide.”