Abdulhamid Al-Abduljabbar, vice president for student affairs at Alfaisal University in Riyadh, has blamed the phenomenon on the haphazard way secondary school graduates are enrolled at higher institutes of learning.

"About 70 percent of secondary school graduates join universities in a haphazard manner as they don't have the guidance to apply their skills and capabilities and properly select subjects and universities that suit them," he said.

Al-Abduljabbar called on universities to introduce special programs to understand the skills and interests of students to guide them accordingly. "This will also help reduce the number of dropouts."

Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari said in a previous statement that the dropout rate of Saudi students in foreign universities was much less than those in Saudi universities.

He, however, did not give the percentage of dropouts from Saudi universities. Students who drop out of foreign universities do so mainly because of family reasons and an inability to cope with studies. More than 88,000 Saudis are studying abroad under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program.

Al-Anqari said in a recent statement that 24 government universities in the Kingdom have made arrangements to admit 278,000 secondary school graduates in the new academic year (2010-2011).

He said Saudi universities are capable of accommodating about 90 percent of secondary school students who are expected to graduate this year. "Private universities and colleges in the Kingdom will be able to provide an additional 15,000 seats," he added.

Abdul Aziz Al-Othman of King Saud University put the rate of dropouts at his institution at nearly 35 percent during the past two years. "Many of them do not like the conventional method of teaching."

However, Al-Othman said the rate of dropout had come down in his university to 10 percent after the introduction of a one-year preparatory program, which enables students to obtain new skills and learn labor market requirements.

Abdul Fattah Al-Mushat of King Abdulaziz University estimated his university's dropout rate at no less than 30 percent. "Many students are attracted to channels other than higher education," he said.

Omar Al-Suwailem of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mineral Resources believes that reports of dropouts are exaggerated. "If a student leaves one university to join another we cannot call him a dropout." All Saudi universities have started introducing preparatory programs in order to acclimatize students to university education, he added.