Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Ministry of Education has announced 311,572 vacant seats in universities and institutes under the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) for secondary school graduates during the academic year 2019-2020.

The ministry also announced an additional 9,504 seats in the Saudi Electronic University.

The ministry said about 59 percent of the seats were for males and 41 percent for females.

It said the universities and the vocational institutes together would absorb about 87 percent of this year's 356,269 secondary school graduates.

The ministry said the intake of government universities would be 272,800 students, 68 percent of whom would choose bachelor's programs. The intake of technical institutes and colleges would be 29 percent of the graduates. The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) is offering 49,648 seats, of which 82 percent will be for boys and 18 percent for girls.

The ministry said the Saudi Electronic University would accept as many as 9,504 students. The university will allocate some 63 percent of the seats for boys and 37 percent for girls.

The ministry said in the second term, there would be 38,722 more seats available, for which the students should apply separately.

It said universities and institutes in five regions — Hail, Najran, Al-Baha, Al-Jouf and the Northern Border Province — would absorb all secondary graduates in their regions and would still have room for students from other regions.

The ministry said Riyadh and Jazan would accept about 67 percent of their secondary school graduates while the Eastern Province and Madinah would accept about 66 percent.

According to the ministry, Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah will accept the largest number of students (15,545), followed by Taif University, which will have seats for 14,500 students.

Taibah University in Madinah comes third with 14,315 while Princess Noura University in Riyadh will have 6,000 seats for women students.

It said about 19 percent of the university seats would be for business administration, 17 percent for mathematics, science and computer applications while humanities and arts would account for only 12 percent of the seats.

The ministry pointed out that there would also be opportunities for university education outside its ambit. They include courses offered by several private universities and military colleges.