Okaz / Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — Minister of Education Ahmed Al-Issa has said the government is not committed to extend financial help to the students of the private colleges and universities inside the Kingdom.

In a meeting on Sunday with a number of medicine students, medical doctors and specialists, he said the government had initiated the program of the domestic scholarship to encourage the students continue their university education.

"The circumstances which prompted the introduction of the domestic scholarship program for students in private universities do not exist any longer so the government is not obliged to provide them with financial support," he said.

Al-Issa said the government used to bear the educational costs of the private university students but now there is no need for it to continue doing this any more.

"The student who opts to join any private university should bear the cost of his/her studies and any other expenses," he said.

The minister said if the government pays the fees and other expenses for the students in the private colleges and universities, then these universities will become government institutions.

"This is not a right thing to do. The government will not pay for the students in the private universities," he said. The minister said the private students who ask the government to help them have no good reason or valid justification.

"You should sue the government at the Court of Grievances which is the suitable body to rule on such cases," he told the students. The students had waited patiently near the Ministry of Education for more than five hours before the minister saw them at 2:30 p.m.

Some of them said they left their jobs to complete their high education in the private universities to benefit from the domestic scholarship program but they were surprised to find out that this program had been stopped.

They said this caused them a lot of problems and endangered their educational future as they were not able to meet the high cost of the private universities.