Twenty-nine graduate students who obtained their degrees following an alternative educational program run by Saudi government universities, also known as ‘External’, have lodged complaints against the Ministries of Education and Civil Service after being denied employment in teaching jobs.

The 29 external graduates were unable to take up employment with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Civil Service on grounds that they were not regular attendees of the university, legal adviser and lawyer of the students Yaqub bin Yusuf Al-Mutair told Arab News.

After completion of litigation formalities, a written complaint was lodged with the Ministries of Education and Civil Service. While no response came from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Service justified its rejection of the complaint saying that conditions for taking up educational jobs are set by the Ministry of Education based on its vision commensurate with the educational process, said the lawyer.

However, educational jobs come under the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Ministry, he added noting that the Ministry of Education had little to do with the appointments.

The students also called on the administrative court in Riyadh to help them obtain employment in educational jobs saying that as long as there was no legal text barring them from taking up these jobs they had a right to be employed. They also said that they had spent a huge amount of money for the fees for each academic year they had attended during the four-year bachelor's program.

The External program run by government universities in Saudi Arabia provides an opportunity to graduate with a bachelor’s degree for those students who cannot attend full time courses due to job or family commitments or because they were late for the regular programs or then had failed to get through the regular program prescribed for students fresh out of school.