JEDDAH: The Higher Education Ministry has allocated SR5 billion to build houses for faculty members on university campuses in different parts of the country, Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari announced yesterday.
He said the allocation has been made in coordination with the Finance Ministry as part of incentives to lecturers and professors. “The ministry has called tenders to implement some of these housing projects,” he said.
Al-Anqari said he would soon sign a number of contracts with real estate contractors to establish the housing projects. “All universities have been instructed to provide designs of their staff housing projects as early as possible,” he added.
The minister thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for his untiring support for higher education.
In the last four years, the number of public universities in the Kingdom has risen from seven to 21. Work is at an advanced stage on the SR10 billion King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a world-class coeducational research university in Thuwal, near Jeddah.
Al-Anqari also said that King Abdullah had approved a proposal under which the state would bear the cost of paid academic programs of Saudi students in universities in the Kingdom.
“The cancellation of fees charged on students attending paid parallel programs will start from the date of the royal approval,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying.
Al-Anqari said the king’s decision would lower the financial burden of Saudi students and encourage them to attend various academic programs for educational excellence.
He said Saudi universities introduced the paid academic programs as part of efforts to accept more students. “However, we noticed that some students were finding it difficult to pay the fees,” he added.
Ali bin Sulaiman Al-Attiyah, supervisor of administrative affairs at the Ministry of Higher Education, said the waiver would come into effect from the beginning of this academic year. “Universities that have already received the fees will refund the amount to students,” he said. Universities were charging fees for preparatory, community service and medical programs.
Abdul Ilah Saaty, acting dean of Jeddah Community College, welcomed the two decisions taken by the government in favor of university students and staff.
