GW announced a partnership Monday with a Saudi university for a new doctoral program on educational leadership.

The partnership, with Taibah University in Medina, Saudi Arabia will be based off of courses offered in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and students will also receive a graduate certificate from GW. The program is set to start its first phase immediately, according to a University release.

University officials will work with officials at Taibah University in a “consultative and collaborative capacity” to create a bilingual curriculum for the course, according to the release. Faculty from both universities are going to meet in October to decide what classes and specific topics will be covered in the program.

“This is an increasingly global society,” said Linda Lemasters, an education administration associate professor at GW. “So the broader knowledge base that we can provide our emerging educational leaders, the better off we are.”

The program will teach students how to work in public elementary and secondary schools and serve in diverse communities. The students will also have the opportunity to visit GW’s Foggy Bottom and Hampton Roads campuses.

In an effort to boost its international reach, officials have increasingly turned abroad for partnerships and boosted recruiting. For example, following University President Steven Knapp’s visit to Turkey in November, officials announced an exchange program with a university there.