SAUDI ARABIA

Syrian students struggle to access Saudi universities

Syrian students wanting to register at Saudi universities are still having a hard time with procedures despite the fact that 23 universities in the Kingdom said they would accept students from that country, reports Arab News.

The Education Ministry said that Saudi universities must accept 3,000 students according to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program to help Syrian students. These are separate from the non-Saudis who are accepted at the Kingdom’s universities.

The problem is that Syrian students have to accredit their certificates with the Syrian Foreign Ministry and the Saudi cultural attaché section in Damascus. They are finding it increasingly hard to do so because most of the Syrians in the Kingdom are from their country’s rural areas, which are outside government rule, and there are no longer roads to get to the Syrian capital. Therefore they are unable to certify their secondary school certificates. There has been no Saudi diplomatic representation in Syria for a number of years.
Full report on the Arab News site