Colleges to teach CSR as a subject

Colleges to teach CSR as a subject

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Abdullah Dahlan, chairman of the Board of Trustees of CBA, signs the alliance with Olfat Kabbani, chairwoman of Alroha CSR Company, at Jeddah Hilton Tuesday. (AN photo)

By JEDDAH: DIANA AL-JASSEM ARAB NEWS STAFF
Published: Apr 25, 2012 22:03 Updated: Apr 27, 2012 20:06

The College of Business Administration (CBA) celebrated the graduation of its sixth batch of bachelors and master students in Jeddah Hilton yesterday in a ceremony attended by dignitaries, students and their parents.

Abdullah Dahlan, chairman of CBA's board of trustees, inaugurated the investiture ceremony that conferred the degrees on 223 students from different departments.

During the ceremony, Dahlan and Olfat Kabbani, chairwoman of Alroha CSR Company, signed a new strategic alliance to promote sustainable responsibility programs in the Saudi education system.

The alliance calls for Kabbani’s CSR syllabus to be taught in Saudi universities to bachelor students from the second year of college.

Kabbani, who chaired the first Social Responsibility Council in Saudi Arabia, pointed out the importance of studying this area and highlighted it to Saudi students and academic experts.

“There is no doubt that the growing importance of CSR helps to develop countries. We are looking to set CSR programs according to our religious and social needs. We are targeting youth to be the biggest beneficiary from this alliance,” she said.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education, the syllabus had been approved and will be the first syllabus that targets the SCR concept.

She added that Alroha CSR Company would seek to change the current perception of social responsibility and devote its expertise to spreading the concept of CSR. Kabbani discussed the implementation of a wide range of mechanisms and standards to evaluate the commitment of teachers’ performance in universities.

Kabbani explained that social responsibility, as defined globally, is not firmly established among Saudi universities, so much needs to be done to inject this concept into the Saudi society.

She said the only way to promote CSR throughout society is by starting with educational institutions and progressing to the government sector.

“Our goal is to make social responsibility an integral part of an institution or individual’s life,” she said.

Dahlan expressed his happiness at the introduction of the CSR syllabus in different departments of CBA. “We are very proud to be the first college that has launched CSR syllabus. The CSR concept is considered very important as CSR helps in developing communities. We noticed recently that CSR became an important section in each company. In addition, our youth has shown enthusiasm toward many CSR issues. Therefore, we believe that the syllabus will be the first of its kind, and CBA is happy to present such valuable subjects to its students,” he said.

He also announced the gradated students will be ready to work in several fields such as human resources management, management of funding, marketing management, accounting and management information systems.

Source: ArabNews.com