Maloul added that university teachers also would benefit from the decision.
“Listening to two different points of view … helps to revitalize the mind and enrich the teaching process,” she said.
Recently, Maloul participated in training courses with university colleagues on how to deal with male students, including teaching methods and specific rules for treatment. Female faculty members recommended that “they be treated with respect and awareness of male mentalities”, she said.
Not Something Strange
Female students welcomed the move to admit men. Lamis Al-Maghrabi, head of the Shura Council for Effat University Students, told Al-Fanar Media via Zoom: “The presence of men at the university is not something strange or new.”
Al-Maghrabi noted that “there are male professors who teach us and the master’s degree students with whom we discuss many things, in addition to the fact that most of the female students of my generation deal with males abroad.”
A third-year student of finance at the College of Business Administration, she added that interacting with male students will help female students adapt to workplaces after graduation.
According to Jamal Al-Lail, only two students objected to the decision, mistakenly believing that males would share classes with them.
Jubeir Al-Ghamidi, a third-year student at the College of Engineering at King Saud University, said in a phone call with Al-Fanar Media that he expects Effat University’s decision will help other institutions to take “daring” steps such as “allowing male and female students to study in the same classrooms”.
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Maloul agreed, saying: “This transformation will eventually happen in two or three years. It is a coming stage, but it takes some time and needs the acceptance of society.”
Jamal Al-Lail added that “such a step will be done according to societal acceptance, and the capabilities available to the university.”