College of Medicine, IMAM University- Riyadh

Region: Riyadh Country: Saudi Arabia

Objectives
General and specific objectives of the college
1) General Objective 1: To prepare the college students to study the medical profession and practice it all their lifetime with the ability to care for health and to take initiative to propose new things in medicine and accommodate with it.

Specific Objectives:

Prediction, as much as possible, of the changes that are likely to occur in society, population structure, technology, resources, and other factors related to medicine and medical care by the integration of these variables in the curriculum of the student of Bachelor of medicine.
Providing students with the necessary skills and incentives to pursue learning and teaching others during their entire professional medical career.
Providing students with the necessary knowledge and skills to work as members of a multi-specialty medical team.
General Objective 2: Satisfaction of students' scientific and personal needs.

Specific Objectives:

Coordinating with students in order to devise methods and procedures that help students to renew their scientific and personal interests.
Setting the mechanisms which prevent pressures faced by the student of the Bachelor of Medicine and mechanisms which treat them.
Setting an environment that promotes a caring and amiable atmosphere between students on the one hand and patients on the other hand.

General Objective 3: devising a curriculum that meets the aspirations and needs of the Saudi society.
Specific Objectives:

Providing ways that promote communication between the university and society's institutions and establishments such as primary medical care centers annexed to the university, its hospitals, profit and non-profit establishments and other medical care facilities.
Cooperation with governmental institutions and society's sectors to assess society's needs in order to meet them.
Setting mechanisms which guarantee dialogue with society's sectors about curricula and their improvement.

General Objective 4: seeking to put instruction at the forefront of the faculty members' priorities.
Specific Objectives:

Making of teaching a source of motivation.
Providing opportunity to evaluate individual faculty members' contribution to teaching students of the Bachelor of Medicine and motivating them according to their excellence in teaching.
Providing faculty members with opportunity to acquire teaching skills and keep on developing them.
Setting mechanisms which guarantee auditing departments about the teaching of syllabi of the Bachelor of Medicine.
Setting mechanisms that preserve faculty members' time and which are profitable for them.

General Objective 5: setting an organigram that facilitates managing curricula
Specific Objectives:

Setting an organigram which meets evolving needs to manage the curricula, facilitates and enhances cooperation, and contributes to establish constant communication between groups and individuals who have a close relation with the Bachelor of Medicine curricula such as Curricula Committee, Syllabi Supervisors, teachers, hospital libraries or any committee in general.
Setting a structure which evaluates the curriculum, faculty members and students in order to make necessary improvements.
Setting a structure that promotes and facilitates teacher development.

General Objective 6: working towards updating the curriculum by encouraging excelling faculty members to take part in this process.
Specific Objectives:
Setting mechanisms which encourage students and faculty members to fully participate in curriculum development of the Bachelor of Medicine and keep up with innovations.

Facts and Figures
Teaching Sharia (the Islamic Law) knowledge prevailed most regions in Saudi Arabia before opening up government-run schools and Sharia institutes.Teaching was conducted at mosques and houses of ulema (scholars), who taught a lot of judges. His eminence Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Sheikh and his brothers played a major role in disseminating knowledge of Sharia in Riyadh and the neighboring areas.

With the start of the overall Sharia knowledge rise in 1370 H (1949 G) and thanks to turnout by the youth to learn Sharia knowledge, the administration-led King Abdulaziz opened up Riyadh Sharia Institute. The by-then king assigned Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Sheikh, the by-then mufti (interpreter of Islamic law) of Saudi Arabia, to run the institute. It was the first foundation of Sharia institutes in various regions of the kingdom.

In 1951, college of Sharia was established in Riyadh. Followed by college of Arabic language in 1952. Then, a series of Sharia institutes were opened under the umbrella of the General Presidency of Sharia Colleges and Institutes.

On September 10th 1974, a royal decree No. 50/m - based upon the cabinet resolution No. 1100 was issued to approve the policy of Al-Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic University. As such it is deemed a higher academic institution, comprising the higher institutes, colleges, and Sharia institutes in Saudi Arabia.

Since the university was established, it has been enlarging continually. It comprises 11 colleges, five of which are in Riyadh and six are out of Riyadh in regions of Qassim, al Ihsa, and Madinah, in addition to the Abha city. Also, it comprises two institutes in Riyadh: one for Jurisdiction and one for teaching Arabic language for non-Arabic native speakers. It comprises six institutes abroad for teaching Islamic, Arab knowledge in Ras Al-Khaima, UAE, Mauritania, Djibouti, Indonesia, USA, and Japan, in addition to sixty three Sharia institutes spreading all over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Thanks to the grand expansion of the university, the second five-year plan was approved of to establish a university city. The project site was selected to be in strategic location north of Riyadh city. Late King Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud laid down the foundation stone of the project on January 5th, 1982.

Everything was shifted to the University City in the beginning of Academic year 1411 H (1990 G).

The shift affected positively and largely the academic process on campus. The jump brought up qualitative and quantitative results on campus, institutes, supporting deanships, and other units