Five percent of applicants to public universities are non-Saudis, Makkah Arabic newspaper quoted Ministry of Education spokesman Mubarak Al-Ussaimi as saying on Saturday. He also said that the children of Saudi mothers and non-Saudi fathers are treated as Saudi applicants. "They register using their residence permits. Once they are accepted, they are asked to bring in the original and copy of their passports, national ID cards of their mothers, their residence permits, birth certificates and their applications," said Al-Ussaimi. He said the final list of all accepted students to public universities will be announced next week. "The number of non-Saudi applicants who get accepted into public universities is on average 5 percent of the total applicants," said Al-Ussaimi. He also said the ministry does not control the number of new students accepted in each public university. "We receive the number of new students from university councils of each university. A university council receives the number of new students from different departments of the university. Each university tries to maintain a balance between the number of students in each class and the number of faculty members available to maintain the quality of education," said Al-Ussaimi. The higher education system includes 21 government universities, 19 teachers colleges for men, 80 teachers colleges for women, 37 colleges and institutes for health, 12 technical colleges and 24 private universities and colleges. Universities and colleges offer graduate programs that include both master's and doctoral degrees. Private universities and institutions are nonprofit organizations that complement government universities. Most government universities are general universities, but some specialize in certain areas, such as petroleum and health.
