RESEARCHSTRATEGY2 0 1 6 - 2 0 2 1

Promoting internationally recognized research

through creating a research culture, and by providing

support and rewards.

After broad consultations, a reward and acknowledgement system has been put in to

place to encourage and help faculty members to perform internationally recognized

research. The new research strategy that is presented in this document has been

formulated and approved after thorough discussions among the major stakeholders,

including a review of the current status of YU research activity and a SWOT analysis.

The strategic objectives and related actions are consistent with EEC/NCAAA Standard

S10 Research. Our vision for the future research at YU is challenging but clear: to

develop research support, leadership and structure; to develop and maintain research

capacity and culture; and to measure and improve research output. Over the next five

years, YU will pursue a profile as a teaching and research focused institution instead

of just being a teaching focused institution.

Over the next five years, we will encourage and support our faculty members to attend

more internationally recognized conferences. We will increase our investment in

building research infrastructure and meeting research related expenses. We are

looking into ways to maintain a reasonable teaching workload for faculty members in

order to allow time for research. We are also working hard to develop new

collaborations and partnerships in research. We aim to use these collaborations to start

a research based postgraduate program. We currently are increasing our capacity to

bid for local, regional, and international research funds. At the same time, we are keen

to improve our profile and ranking among Saudi public and private sector universities

over the next five years.

This strategy is a strong statement from YU management to support our research and

researchers by providing a range of support measures. In the next five years, we hope

to achieve our goal of creating a dynamic research culture that generates quality

research output and which improves the financial strength of YU. This can be

achieved, in part, by bringing in revenue from commercial consultancy work, alongside

making contributions to Saudi society and individuals. Based on our current strengths,

this strategy contains our aspirations over the next five years; it also sets out a

framework to deliver on our research mission and targets. Further, this strategy

provides a mechanism that allows us to build upon the current research capacity by

encouraging research output trends and strengths. In addition, it will help us to

increase our research presence and visibility nationally, regionally, and internationally.

The main objective of this strategy is to optimally use our human resources (faculty

members and students) to perform research that is global in nature and which has a

significant impact on society and individuals. At the same time, this strategy also

addresses the challenges and new opportunities that are offered by the Saudi

government’s Vision 2030, as well as the adjustments that are due to rebalancing of

the country’s economy.

Please read and share this document—this is your strategy.

Prof. Dr. Hussein M. AlFreihi President

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AL YAMAMAH UNIVERSITY

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WE ASPIRE TO DEVELOP, APPLY, AND SHARE KNOWLEDGE IN OUR EFFORT TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY AND INDIVIDUALS

Ambitions

We aim to create an

environment where

creativity and

research are

encouraged,

supported,

rewarded, and

celebrated.

We strive to develop

collaborations that

are global in nature

and sustainable

over a longer time

period.

We will help our

faculty members

and students to use

their full potential

and will help them to

overcome any

challenges that they

may face.

Responsibilities

We hope to

implement and

enforce the highest

standards of

integrity across all

of our teaching,

research, and

administrative

activities.

We will maintain

transparency and

confidentiality in all

of our activities.

We strive to create

a research culture

that promotes

opportunities for all,

irrespective of

gender, nationality,

and academic or

administrative

ranks.

We insist on

maintaining the

highest academic

and professional

standards.

We seek

sustainability in our

teaching and

research activities.

Our renewed and strong focus on research already has started producing results. The

number of active researchers, publications, citations, and the research budget are

currently rising. This increase in research activity has helped us to cement our place

in the Saudi higher education sector as an institution that delivers significant benefits to Saudi

society across a number of activities, including research and creativity. Since last year, YU

has moved from being exclusively a teaching focused university to a teaching plus research

and knowledge transfer institution. We now aim to build on these achievements over the next

five years. This research strategy aligns our activities with our mission, vision, and values. In

this new environment, creativity, research, and knowledge transfer have been placed at the

center of the university’s future plans and ambitions. Going forward:

We will increase the number of annual journal publications from 1.41 to 2.3 per

faculty member by year 2020/2021.

We will perform and share internationally recognized and high impact research that

positively contributes to Saudi society and individuals.

We will contribute significantly toward achieving the Vision 2030 targets that have

been set by the Saudi government by evaluating new economic policies, imparting

training and skill enhancement of the Saudi labor force. This effort will help with the

transition of the economy, and contribute to the prosperity of the regional and

national economy.

We will engage in research collaborations and partnerships that will ensure that our

research output is truly international in nature and of high quality.

We aim to improve our profile and ranking at national and regional levels through

excellence in teaching and research. Our goal in the next five years is to be ranked

among the top ten Saudi universities in general, and among the top three among

private universities.

We will increase our research related spending to 2.5% of total YU expenditure

within the next three years, with fair and adequate allocations for internally funded

research projects, cost of publishing, conference attendance, purchase of

equipment/software, and so on.

We will significantly increase our revenue share from external consultancy and

commercial research over the next five years. This will help us to achieve financial

strength and long-run sustainability.

We will increase our research clusters and set-up centers of excellence for research

related to business, IT, engineering, and architecture research themes.

We will build upon the existing international faculty by recruiting more

internationally recognized researchers, and by creating strategic global networks

and partnerships.

We will build upon our success in the delivery of undergraduate courses in business,

IT, and engineering/architecture by introducing more postgraduate courses that

have a strong emphasis on research, along with our existing postgraduate

programs. We aspire to start collaborative PhD programs in business and IT in the

next five years.

We will host internationally recognized scholars for shorter assignments; we will also

will offer adjunct professor positions to promote our research culture and enhance

the skill set of the existing faculty members.

We aim to organize regionally and internationally recognized conferences on themes

related to business, IT, engineering and Vision 2030 to further promote our standing

in research. We will also provide a platform for our faculty to publish and create a

research culture.

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By following high standards of academic,

professional and research integrity and ethics,

we aim to:

Create a culture of research that encourages faculty and

students to perform internationally recognized research which also has a high impact.

Develop research themes that are relevant in the current

economic, social, and technological environments.

Establish YU as one of the favored options for local, regional,

and international researchers to collaborate in academic and commercial research activity.

Improve our research profile and ranking among national and

regional public and private universities based on internationally accepted benchmarks for research output and dissemination.

Increase the numbers of postgraduate research students, and

increase their contributions toward society and the research community. We will train them to excel in a research career.

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Strategic Objective 1: Assess current research policies and

develop new research policies, guidelines,

and procedures and establish an

organizational structure that is similar to

research-oriented established universities.

Strategic Actions

1.1. Develop and adopt clear research policies and principles,

and then integrate these principles into promotion

criteria, contract renewal/termination, faculty

performance evaluation, research output and

benchmarking, professional development reviews, and

current and planned investment in capacity building and

training.

1.2. Help establish more interactions between the

Postgraduate Center and the Center for Research and

Consultancy by creating a joint forum to develop new

policies and implementations.

1.3. Assist the college deans and university management in

creating new college-based research centers.

1.4. Recruit competitive and efficient staff for the Center for

Research and Consultancy and strengthen the collaboration

between the center and the colleges.

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Strategic Objective 2:

Enhance institutional research capacity through

the development and implementation of related

research support mechanisms and external

funding, and introduce rewards for research

excellence.

Strategic Actions

2.1. Continuously develop and increase our research capacity by providing research support and help to faculty members.

2.2. Invest in our existing research capability to improve the quality of publications up to international standards.

2.3. Help faculty members to establish contacts with leading researchers through conferences, research workshops, email correspondence, social media, and other methods of communication.

2.4. Establish a mechanism to help faculty members to attract funds from external sources, such as government ministries and private businesses.

2.5. Develop and implement a strategy that invites internationally recognized and distinguished scholars for shorter durations to work on collaborative research and impart research training to YU students and faculty members.

2.6. Foster research collaboration between YU faculty members and world leading research centers and organizations to deliver world leading capacity, as well as to improve our reputation and brand name.

2.7. Ensure significant investment in research activity and priority research areas with internal grants based on current national and international needs, and ensure adequate returns on research investment in terms of publications and future income streams.

2.8. Develop and suggest mechanisms to recruit a research active and competitive faculty.

2.9. Develop policies and procedures to reward those faculty members who have excelled in both teaching and research (publishing and knowledge transfer), and celebrate their success.

Strategic Objective 3:

Phased implementation of the requirement for

student’s to conduct significant research

activities at the undergraduate and

postgraduate level, and make research an

integral part of the university’s educational

experience.

Strategic Actions

3.1. Embed research in undergraduate and postgraduate

curricula, and develop mechanisms to promote research

culture and activities.

3.2. Develop infrastructure, and research training programs

and courses for undergraduate and postgraduate research

students to work on projects and areas that are most likely

to supplement, support, and sustain our research themes

and areas.

3.3. Develop mechanisms to introduce postgraduate research

programs in the next five years to promote our research

culture and increase our number of publications and

researchers.

3.4. Establish interactions between our student’s research, and

private and governmental sector institutions to provide

feedback, dissemination of the research findings, and to

ensure the student’s employability in industry.

3.5. Encourage faculty members to collaborate and publish

with undergraduate and postgraduate students.

3.6. Establish internship arrangements for students with

research institutes, research departments of ministries,

and private institutions.

3.7. Make significant investments in improving research

supervision capacity for undergraduate and postgraduate

final projects and theses.

3.8. Hold an annual research day competition and provide

financial rewards for quality research work by final year

students.

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Strategic Objective 4:

Enhance institutional capacity by

developing external links and

attracting globally recognized

researchers to compete successfully

for external research funding and

establish mutually beneficial

strategic research partnerships with

external organizations.

Strategic Actions

4.1. Develop YU’s reputation, organizational

structure, and support system to attract

and retain scholars with an international

reputation and to secure external research

funding.

4.2. Assess potential synergies with national

and international reputed universities and

research institutions, and develop and

support collaborations.

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Strategic Objective 5:

Develop new, unique, and niche

areas and themes of research that

address the current local and

regional issues.

Strategic Actions

5.1. Evaluate and list emerging themes and areas of research in local and regional contexts for publication and commercial consultancy, and to enhance support and awareness about specialized journals and external funding opportunities.

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