Degree Accreditation is an educational process of assessing a credential in whole and comparing to the counterpart academic degree levels and its terms.
University Degree Accreditation Committee is a specialized central academic body affiliated to Ministry of Education working primarily on assessment of post-secondary academic degree obtained from institutions outside of Saudi Arabia by Saudi citizens and Non-Saudis, and equalization within the degree levels applied in the Kingdom with respect to degree duration, number of courses, previous study requirements…etc.
At times, local educational programs and university degrees are referred to the committee for comparison and evaluation to consider equalization with respective degrees.
The committee is comprised of several members (more than twenty) , including university faculty specialized in various fields of knowledge, humanities and social sciences , pure and applied sciences, in addition to representatives of ministry of education and ministry of civil services and a ministry legal advisor. Committee mostly meets four times a month to review degrees and issues submitted after each member has had received a case referred and did study it before the meeting takes place.
The committee has internal bylaws that regulate work approaches and meeting format. It normally conducts more than thirty meetings per annum reviewing, on average, thirty cases in each meeting. Committee also answers questions of citizens and denizens regarding universities abroad. It keeps a specialized library of most prominent guides of academic accreditation organizations and world universities and universities that granted degrees previously referred. A computerized information system is in use at the committee to store and retrieve committee decisions.
Prior to establishment of Ministry of Education in 1975 (1395 Hijra), Accreditation of all degrees was conducted at Wizarat Al-Ma’arif (ministry of education currently). Accreditation was conducted under the decision of cabinet No. 542 dated 30/10/1385 Hijra that provides that ministry, via its Accreditation committee department, shall implement evaluation of certificates and identification of degrees equal to those recognized in the Kingdom and identification of universities and institutes of recognized certificates.
Another decision was issued after the establishment of Ministry of Education that carried execution of the national education policies in higher education through universities existing then and those founded later and departments for management of scholarships. The cabinet decision No. 314 dated 9/3/1397 Hijra amended the earlier decision creating a degree equalization committee at the Ministry of Education that carry assessment and equalization of degrees granted from Non-Saudi universities to respective degrees granted by Saudi universities. Committee also carried identification of universities of recognized degrees.
Decision mandated that the committee formation and work management be directed by a decision of Minister of Education whereas ministry department for education retains assessment and equalization of pre-university certificates.
A subsequent decision No. 72 dated 27/3/1406 modified, in part, abovementioned decision according to the following:
The importance of establishment of this committee is apparent from the reality that many citizens are studying abroad and granted academic degrees of various universities at several countries or even studying at their own expenses and such situation implies varying academic levels. This situation necessitates existence of an academic body that assess such academic degrees in comparison with respective degrees granted by Saudi universities and be in contact with similar academic bodies outside the Kingdom to keep abreast of trends and approaches in practice in the domain of academic degree assessment and equalization.
Availability of such a committee helped at setting frameworks and approaches to scholarship programs to different world universities of credentials that are assessed. It also assisted other national administrative bodies in the evaluation of academic degrees and expertise of resources recruited to work at these bodies.
Committee is affiliated with the Ministry of Education since ministry is the agency tasked with university level education in the Kingdom and that Minister of education is Deputy President of the Council of Higher Education hence he carries roles and responsibilities of all university affairs. In addition, the affiliation of this committee to the ministry enables carrying of tasks related to scholarships as previously pointed.