RIYADH — Deputy Minister of Education for Planning Eng. Saad Al-Ghamdi said that efforts are ongoing to grant licenses to prestigious international universities to open their branches in Saudi Arabia. “The number of beneficiaries of the “Study in Saudi Arabia” program has surpassed 200,000 international students,” he said.The deputy minister made the remarks while attending the launch of the “Global Education Monitoring Report 2026,” at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. This year the report focused on the theme of “Access and Equity in Education.” Saudi Arabia had a prominent presence in the report, enabling it to showcase its qualitative achievements in developing the education sector. There was an increase in enrollment rates in post-secondary education, with the enrollment rate in higher education reaching 83.88 percent, according to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The report indicated that enrollment in technical and vocational education witnessed an increase exceeding 30 percent in 2024, a direct reflection of the success of efforts to restructure the education system within the objectives of Vision 2030, through the Human Capability Development Program. Al-Ghamdi noted that King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals achieved a global ranking of 67th according to the QS World University Rankings, and that several Saudi universities were included in the list of the top 100 universities worldwide for patents in 2025, reflecting the growing research and innovation environment in the Kingdom.He also highlighted the success of the Strategic Scholarship Program, which includes more than 56,000 scholarship recipients. The deputy minister affirmed that the Kingdom’s experience in aligning education with labor market needs and increasing enrollment in technical and vocational education serves as an inspiring model for countries seeking to transform challenges into sustainable development opportunities within the framework of Vision 2030.
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