Culture & Education | Saturday 21 February, 2015 1:54 am |

The Shoura Council’s Education and Research Committee has proposed limiting the number of licenses granted to schools run by embassies, and to allow foreign private sector investors to have an opportunity to set up international schools.

The committee is expected to discuss the 2013/2014 annual report of the Ministry of Higher Education on Monday and Tuesday, according to a report in a local publication. It would seek to amend Article 9 of the legislation overseeing the running of foreign schools, the report stated.
Article 9 stipulates that a supervisory council should be established to oversee the rules and procedures for granting licenses to private schools, including curricula, school fees, donations and grants.

The committee said that foreign embassies that want to own the land and buildings of their schools in the Kingdom must apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for permission.
The committee stated that it has set up a new council to oversee private education in the country, which means that the old regulatory body mentioned in Article 8 of the legislation is now defunct.

Meanwhile, the committee is also expected to call on the ministry to increase allocations for scientific research at universities, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the private sector. This research should focus on new technology, industrial development and community services.
Universities should study the possibility of granting incentives for scholarship students at universities abroad, in line with specifications of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program.

The committee is also going to propose that service awards for university staff are calculated from the date they received their master’s degrees, not from the date that they were appointed.

It would also call on the finance and labor ministries to include a stipend for university education in the salaries of Saudi university lecturers.