Eighty-six percent of secondary school graduates will get seats at Saudi universities this year. Higher Education Minister Dr. Khaled Al-Anqari has given his instructions to universities in this respect.
“This is the highest university intake in the world. In most countries a maximum of only 50 percent secondary school graduates get to universities,” the minister said.
The tremendous increase in intake comes with the opening of 12 new universities and several colleges in different parts of the Kingdom. During the last four years the number of government universities in the Kingdom rose from eight to 20.
Al-Anqari said some 5,000 students would be sent abroad for higher studies, especially for master’s and doctoral courses and fellowships, in the fourth phase of King Abdullah Scholarship Program.
More than 40,000 Saudi students are currently pursuing higher studies in universities and institutes in Europe, America, China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. “We are studying prospects of increasing the allowances given to Saudi students abroad,” he said.
Last month Al-Anqari signed a number of contracts worth more than SR1.23 billion to establish higher education facilities and new colleges in various parts of the Kingdom. They include medical, engineering and computer science colleges.
“The new colleges will help absorb more secondary school graduates in the future,” he added.
Efforts are under way to establish campuses of King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Rabigh, Khulais and Kamil. Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has instructed municipalities to allocate five million square meters of land in each town for the projects.
Subsequently the three municipalities have set up committees to select suitable locations for the projects. “The selection will be completed within a week,” one official said.
Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Yubi, undersecretary at KAU, said 11 colleges for boys and girls would be established in the three cities with Rabigh, receiving the highest number of colleges.
Six colleges for medicine, engineering, computer science and information technology (IT), business administration, applied medical sciences and sciences will be established in Rabigh.
Al-Yubi said three colleges would be established in Khulais for applied medical sciences, computer science and IT and sciences, and two in Kamil for sciences, computer science and IT.
Prince Khaled announced the opening of KAU campuses when he visited the towns recently.
-- Arab News
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