Many students were left disappointed and some fainted in the heat, while others jostled for places.

Most of the mothers accompanying the applicants had to wait under the July sun on the asphalt roads.

The girls and mothers questioned the soundness of the admission procedures as many girls with outstanding academic records were denied admission after enrollment officials said the more than 19,000 seats in the university had been filled.

The applicants wondered how such a large number of students could have been admitted when the admission procedures were being completed at a slow pace, Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“In spite of the claims by university officials that the electronically-managed enrollment system cannot be tampered with, what actually happens behind the office walls strongly suggests that it is shady practices such as favoritism and not marks that count. Girls with less marks but have connections or are related to university staff obtain seats,” claimed Abeer Al-Seraihy, a girl waiting for admission.

Another girl, Fatimah Al-Hujaily said, “I was an applicant for a course in the information and telecommunications faculty and I arrived in the office with all the required documents. But the official at the counter said the admission cut-off mark was 84 percent while my average was 83. She asked me to apply for alternative programs.”

Another complaint by girl students was that boys with overall marks of 70 percent were admitted while girls with less than 75 percent were not.

Um Lamya, mother of a girl who was enrolled on a course in computer sciences, said her daughter was admitted because she argued with the official at the enrollment counter.

“The official at first told me that my daughter could not be admitted because she was late and another girl with less marks had been admitted in her place,” she said.

“I asked her how could she enroll a girl with less marks (than me) when I am standing in the line. The position in the line is fixed on the basis of grades,” she said.

Denying reports that mothers accompanying girls were provided with air-conditioned waiting rooms with a sufficient number of chairs, Lamya Abdul Samad said she and many other women had to stand on the road in the sun and were blocked from going to the toilets in the university building.

“The sight of old women who accompanied the girls was really distressing. Some of them fainted on the pavements,” she said.