Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman issued a Royal Order transforming King Saud University into an independent, non-profit academic institution that be under the “umbrella” of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, according to multiple reports.
The Crown Prince also ordered a new board of directors to be created for the University. The Royal Order named Youssef bin Abdullah Al-Bunyan as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Al-Bunyan is also chairman of the board of directors of Saudi Arabia’s Small and Medium Enterprises Bank (Monshaat). The Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, Ahmad bin Sulaiman AlRajhi, will serve as Vice Chairman.
Al-Bunyan expressed his appreciation to King Salman and the crown prince for the order to form the new board of directors and entrusting him with the chairman position.
The remaining board members is a who’s who of powerful Saudi government officials and leading businesspersons, indicating the Crown Prince is keen on advancing KSU’s stature in the Kingdom and in international rankings.
The remaining members of the board are as follows: the minister of Communications and information technology, the minister of transport and logistics services, the minister of industry and mineral resources, the president of King Saud University, the president of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence, Fahd bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed, the CEO of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, the governor of the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha’at), the CEO of Riyadh Non-Profit Foundation, the president of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority, the chairman of the board of directors of the Council of Saudi Chambers, a representative of the Public Investment Fund, Salman bin Mutaib Al-Sudairi, Tal Hisham Nazer, and the CEO of the Saudi Research and Media Group Jomana Al-Rashed.
Saudi investment into its universities is part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and according to the Oxford Business Group, is starting to create meaningful results.
“Saudi Arabia’s tertiary education segment is steadily deepening its contribution to the country’s push for higher competitiveness via applied research and the alignment of educational outcomes with economic needs and labour market realities,” the Oxford Business Group recently wrote.
“This improvement is apparent in the expanding presence of Saudi universities in international rankings. The 2022 edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai ranking, includes seven Saudi higher education institutions among the world’s top-1000 universities, up from four in 2019 and six in 2021. Similarly, in 2022 the Kingdom strengthened its standing in the QS World University Rankings, with 14 universities entering the 1400-plus classification, in comparison with nine in 2019. Finally, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings saw a significant increase in the number of Saudi universities listed among the world’s top 1600, jumping to 22 in 2022 from just six in 2019…In terms of individual institutions, King Abdulaziz University, King Saud University, and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals hold the leading positions in the Kingdom, achieving comparatively high rankings in a number of disciplines at a global level.”
