KUWAIT, April 16 (KUNA) -- The British Pembroke College, Cambridge, has expressed deep gratitude to Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Sabah for patronizing research at the renowned university, a statement by the Abdullah Mubarak Al-Sabah Foundation said Saturday.
This came when Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Sabah has recently paid a formal call on Lord Smith of Fisbury, the new Master of Prembroke College "Developing our understanding of the culture, history and society of the Middle East and Islamic world has never been more important than now; and the generosity of Sheikh Mubarak in sponsoring academic research and discovery here at Pembroke College is especially deeply valued," Lord Smith was quoted by the Foundation as saying.
Sheikh Mubarak was a Pembroke student where he took an MPhil degree as a postgraduate in International Studies. He has kept in close touch with Pembroke, especially in connexion with the support given by the family Foundation named for his late father, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak, one of the great figures of the Al-Sabah Ruling Family in the middle of the last century.
Also present at the meeting, held on March 31, was Sir Roger Tomkys, a former Master of the College, who was Sheikh Mubarak's Tutor and who has been closely associated with the Book Prize since its inception.
The foundation, under the aegis of the late Sheikh Abdullah Mubarak's wife, Sheikha Sou'ad Al-Sabah, is widely recognised for its generous support of academic work. Each year since 1998 the British-Kuwait Friendship Society administers and awards a valuable Prize for the best original academic monograph or monographs published in the English Language in the preceding year.
The Right Honourable Lord (Chris) Smith was Secretary of State in the Labour Government and subsequently Head of the Environment Agency, before being elected Master of the College at which he was himself a student.
The foundation has funded a prestigious Research Fellowship in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the College, enabling outstanding post-doctoral scholars to establish their careers and help spread better understanding of the region in the Western World. (end) rk