International and Academic Administration

The Ministry of Higher Education has taken measures designed to develop its administrative and technical sectors in order to increase their efficiency and improve their performance. A number of important accomplishments have been achieved in this regard, for instance:

E-government

The Ministry has prepared twenty-one electronic systems and programs for its financial and administrative procedures and operations. In addition, it has developed a new data center, and connected all administrative units and departments in the Ministry to an integrated electronic network.

Electronic transaction systems

The Ministry has supported development of electronic transaction systems in Saudi universities. The universities, in turn, have created dedicated deanships and centers for this purpose, and this has contributed to bringing about an improvement in the level of administrative performance in Saudi universities.

University websites on the Internet

The Ministry is intent on supporting the intention of Saudi universities to develop electronic websites on the Internet in both Arabic and English, in order to provide support services for the educational process, including admission procedures, follow up of course material, or offering other services for the local community in addition to serving as a channel of communication with other sectors of society.

Higher education statistics system

Due to the importance of making a scientific decision based on correct data which will help in planning for the future, the Ministry has established a unit specialized in statistics related to higher education in order to provide data regarding the various dimensions of higher education.

Geographic information systems

The Ministry has completed a geographical information systems project for higher education. The aim of this project is to provide geographical information, such as the locations of higher education institutions, data on population, agriculture, industry, and commerce, highway networks, airports, and all other statistical data needed by institutions of higher education to make decisions based on up-to-date scientific foundations.

Infrastructure for the new universities

The Ministry seeks to complete infrastructure projects for the new universities so they can perform their functions as required Funds approved for the budgets of the new universities for the financial year AH 1427-1428 (2007-2008) reached an equivalent of fourteen billion Saudi riyals, covering more than 171 projects.
This is in addition to more than a billion riyals from the budget surplus which has been earmarked for additional projects on the campuses of five other universities.

Agreements with distinguished international institutions

The Ministry has signed a number of agreements with distinguished international institutions in the areas of academic leadership training, in order to prepare leaders qualified in administering institutions of higher education in the Kingdom.