A female student at the King Abdul Aziz University (KAAU) in Jeddah had to seek enrollment at the King Saud University in Riyadh to complete her studies following her marriage and shift of residence to Riyadh, where her husband was working. She presented her documents from the KAAU showing that she had completed 64 credits in two years with excellent grades.
The strange and tragic part of the story is that the science faculty at the Riyadh university rejected most of her credits except the first six. Such a policy is said to be common, dealing a serious blow to many students who are compelled to transfer to other universities in the middle of their studies.
The protesting student said: “Any university in the United States or Canada or in other Arab countries would have accepted all her credits completed in the past two years.”
She further wonders, “ Isn’t this university and my former university in the same country offering the same educational regulations and identical curriculum? I feel like both laughing and weeping because I have to repeat here at the King Saud University the very same subjects, which I completed at the KAAU over the past two years.”
Worse, somebody suggested that should she decide to go back to KAAU, the school would reject the credits it had given her and require her to start all over again.
Education officials have to immediately address this issue. Likewise, they should remove all other unreasonable regulations that only zap the time and money of students, as well as resources that universities could put to better use, such as in research projects.