Riyadh — Saudi Arabia’s University Affairs Council has decided to increase admissions to major professional courses by two folds.
The chosen courses are medical, engineering, technical, and applied courses. The increase admissions will also include business studies in various university faculties in the Kingdom.
At the same time, the council decided to reduce admissions to half for majors incompatible with the labor market requirements.
These were among a series of decisions taken by the council meeting, chaired by Minister of Education Dr. Hamad Al-Sheikh.
The council decided to double the number of university admissions available in 2020 in specialized colleges for professional courses related to health, engineering, technical, applied sciences, and business administration per the capacity of these colleges.
This increase will improve the result of the educational process and add further talent to the labor market.
The council’s decisions also included a reduction in admission by no less than 50 percent in majors incompatible with the labor market requirements.
Simultaneously the decision increases admission numbers for the male and female students in quality colleges. The new policy is for the next five years, to be reviewed and evaluated after three years.
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The supervisory committee, headed by the deputy president of the council for research and innovation, will follow up on the implementation of the decision.
The council meeting also decided to expand universities in offering professional certificate courses in all disciplines to raise the skill level of male and female students of universities.
These certificate courses will prepare participants professionally for the labor market. It will increase the competitiveness and efficiency of all students versus their global competition.
The council also instructed the universities to take several measures. These measures include the job acceptance percentage of their graduates for each major.
The employment percentage of part-time and full-time graduates and graduates employed in their actual field of study.
The institutes will include the monthly salary of working graduates in their semi-annual report, published on the university’s website.
The indices shall highlight the importance of competition between universities to harmonize their academic programs and the requirements and needs of the local and international labor market.
With these decisions, the council aims to enable universities to keep pace with future aspirations and meet the national requirements.
Further raising the efficiency of the outputs and performance of the Kingdom’s university education system, which is in line with the best international practices pursued by universities.
