What Are the Responsibilities of the Council of Universities' Affairs?

The Council of Universities' Affairs is the entity responsible for higher education in Saudi Arabia. It is tasked with several responsibilities, including approving policies and strategies for higher education, approving regulatory frameworks for universities, private colleges, and branches of foreign universities, and overseeing them. It organizes memorandums of understanding between universities and foreign institutions, governs and evaluates the academic, administrative, and financial performance of universities, sets general rules for financial compensation, determines the programs and courses for which universities may charge fees, monitors the performance of boards of trustees, ensures the validity of their decisions, and approves agreements for scientific and technical cooperation.

The Council of Universities' Affairs was established in 2019 following the approval of the new Universities Law by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.