A major research-intensive university that was supposed to be built in the Saudi Arabian desert is unlikely to materialise, experts have predicted, after all official references to it were erased and its president transferred to a different initiative.
The future of Neom University was cast into doubt earlier this year amid reports that the country was massively scaling back its plans for the futuristic “megacity” where it would be located. Announced by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, Neom was supposed to reinvent modern living, with flying taxis and robot servants. But the city’s main project, a 112-mile horizontal skyscraper known as The Line, has been all but been abandoned, with workers leaving the site, the Times and the Washington Post have reported. And there are now growing concerns that one of the scheme’s other flagship offerings – a brand-new university – will also fall by the wayside.
Hailed at the time of its launch as having the potential to become “Saudi Arabia’s premier and best-resourced research institution”, rivalling the likes of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as one of the Middle East’s most prestigious universities, Neom University now appears to have no leader.
