King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Chairman of the Higher Education Council, has approved the Council's decision to set up a Riyadh-based distance learning university. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Dr. Khalid Bin Muhammad Al-Anqari, Minister of Higher Education, said the university would be a government institution that will provide courses including administrative and financial sciences, information technology and health sciences. He said the university will award bachelor and postgraduate degrees and will seek local and foreign accreditation. He said the university will replace the external student system whereby partime students are allowed to study at universities. The new university will, however, continue to work closely with various universities in the Kingdom. He said the university has been designed to provide quality education in cooperation with universities and teaching staff inside and outside the Kingdom. He said the university will be stationed in Riyadh but will have offices in other parts of the country. An announcement about the launch of this university was made in February this year. The annoucement was welcomed by academicians and students all over the Kingdom.
