Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Expatriates will no longer be hired in the academic faculties of government universities unless there are no qualified Saudis to take up the job. The Ministry of Education said in a statement on Wednesday that the universities shall advertise in the local newspapers and university websites about the availability of these jobs for qualified Saudis.

The universities should also contact the Ministry of Civil Service to ensure that there are no qualified Saudi jobseekers in the specified specialization on its employment waiting list. The ministry noted that the regulations and instructions stipulate the necessity of ascertaining the actual need for hiring non-Saudis in specialties after carrying out these procedures, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Mubarak Al-Osaimi, spokesman of the ministry, said that the Saudi universities have active programs to deputize lecturers to the world-class universities to pursue specialized studies so as to qualify them to take up jobs of academic faculty members in the universities in future. He pointed out that hiring of non-Saudis as faculty members is on a temporary basis until the return of these graduates. This will be for a period of one year that is renewable. The universities can dispense with these expatriates if they do not want to renew their contracts.