In line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and in support of its shift from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, the University Vice Presidency for Academic Affairs launched a number of academic initiatives to enhance the quality of the educational process to satisfy the needs of the job market in light of the best global trends and practices. Among these initiatives is the Student Support Initiative.
Launching Student Support Initiative
The Administrative Decision No. 53342/ dated 13/1/1439 AH was issued by the Vice President for Academic Affairs to implement the Student Support Initiative. The Initiative was launched to monitor the practices of student support in the university’s colleges, benchmark these practices to identify the best local and international practices, and then setting a scale of academic excellence in order to evaluate the current status of the practices and enhance it according to approved standards.
Student Support Initiative
The Student Support Initiative aims to provide a wide range of services to students that address different academic and personal challenges students may face during the academic year. These services are categorized into planning, follow-up, and treatment.
The Student Support Initiative focuses on academic advising, mentoring, tutoring, psychological counseling, and early detection of at-risk students due to their low academic performance.
The Student Support Initiative includes an integrated program which supports students in the areas of academic, psychological, and social counseling, as well as tutoring and student activities.
Objective of the Student Support Initiative
To provide support to university students in the areas of academic, psychological and social counseling, as well as tutoring classes and student activities through a unified electronic system (Student Support System) that ensures the quality and improvement of academic performance indicators of university students.
This initiative contributes to achieving some key criteria for institutional accreditation:
The Second Criterion (Governance, Leadership and Management):
2-6-4 The institution provides the necessary information to the beneficiaries in a transparent and up-to-date method. The institution is committed to credibility, accuracy, and transparency in the information it publishes about itself.
The Fourth Criterion (Students)
- Advising and Counseling
4-4-1 The institution adopts an effective and comprehensive system to provide advising and counseling services according to specific plans and programs provided by qualified and sufficient staff. The suitable follow-up mechanisms to implement these plans and programs are established.
4-4-3 The institution provides effective services and programs for academic advising and career guidance for students based on their needs.
4-4-5 The institution provides psychological, behavioral, and social counseling services to students which follow easy, flexible, and confidential procedures via specialized units.
4-4-6 The institution adopts periodic methods of evaluation to measure students' satisfaction with guidance and counseling services and contributes to continuous improvement processes. - Student Services and Activities
2-6-4 The institution monitors the quality of services provided to students through effective mechanisms. The mechanisms include measuring the students’ satisfaction with the quality and adequacy of the provided services and contributing to continuous improvement processes of these services.
4-6-4 The institution follows the necessary mechanisms to organize and encourage the participation of students in various student activities. It detects the extent of the students’ participation and their satisfaction rates. It works to improve the quality of activities.
Student Support Initiative Practices Monitoring Tools:
The impact of the practices of Student Support Initiative is monitored and measured using 11 performance indicators, consisting of statistics and numerical facts that are calculated directly through the activation of the Student Support System in colleges. They measure students’ satisfaction with the various practices of the Student Support Initiative through a survey designed based on the excellence rating scale. The survey contains 23 positive statements to be answered (yes, no, or not applicable).
