Nemetschek and University of Jeddah sign MoU on AEC digital skills
Nemetschek Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Jeddah to support digital skills development across architecture, engineering, construction and operations disciplines. The agreement, announced on 28 September 2026 in Riyadh, is framed around Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 agenda to diversify the economy and develop domestic human capital.
Under the terms of the MoU, Nemetschek will provide educational software licences from its portfolio, including Bluebeam, Archicad and Vectorworks. Students in engineering, architecture, design and technology programmes will gain hands-on access to tools that mirror those used in professional practice. The partnership also includes specialised training for academic staff, structured pathways from study into employment, and plans to co-develop professional diploma programmes and joint workshops.
Muayad Simbawa, Nemetschek's managing director for the Middle East, said: "The future of the built environment will depend not only on the technologies we adopt, but on the people who know how to use them effectively. Collaboration between industry and academia is therefore essential to ensuring that students graduate with skills that reflect the realities of a rapidly evolving professional landscape."
The University of Jeddah, founded under the Vision 2030 framework, is among the newer entrants to Saudi higher education and focuses on programmes designed to improve graduate employability. The partnership extends Nemetschek's existing Nemetschek Group Academic Program (NGAP), which provides similar access arrangements to universities in other markets.
Market context
Academic software access programmes are a well-established route to market for major AEC software vendors. Autodesk, Bentley Systems and Trimble all run comparable student and faculty licence schemes, using them to build platform familiarity early in professionals' careers and reinforce commercial adoption once graduates enter industry. Nemetschek, which reported revenue of EUR 1.19 billion in 2025, competes directly with those vendors across design, project management and construction-operations workflows.
The Middle East construction and infrastructure market represents a significant growth opportunity for AEC software providers. Saudi Arabia's giga-projects, including NEOM and the Red Sea Project, have generated substantial demand for digital-design and building-information-modelling capabilities, and the Kingdom has explicitly prioritised technology-enabled construction as part of its broader industrialisation push.
Regulatory and standards read-across
Nemetschek holds ISO 27001 certification, which is increasingly relevant as universities and government-aligned institutions in the Gulf Cooperation Council region apply tighter data-governance requirements to technology partnerships. The EU AI Act, while not directly applicable in Saudi Arabia, is shaping how global software vendors describe and govern the AI features embedded in their tools; buyers in markets like Saudi Arabia that have close commercial ties to European vendors are beginning to factor those standards into procurement decisions.
The agreement does not disclose financial terms, student enrolment targets, or a timeline for the planned diploma co-development. Progress milestones and any associated commercial licensing arrangements will be worth monitoring as the partnership matures.