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KAU fights all types of discrimination in its policies and procedures, be it the national policies or the university's specific policies.
KAU Admission's policy is a non-discrimination policy that is reviewed and published on yearly basis with updates where and when needed.
More than 52% of the total number of students at King Abdulaziz University are females, whether at the undergraduate or postgraduate levels.
A look at some indicative numbers in KAU, will clearly tell the non-discriminative ecosystem of the university. Rather, it shows how the university is well prepared and equipped to fight discrimination and reduce its causes and effects by providing special services to some types of applicants like Females, students with disabilities, international, and low-income students.
To view the policy text, click here.
KAU has 1737 Students with Disability. This is a critical indicator on how the university is a preferred destination to national and international students with disabilities who are capable of practicing their university life with minimum difficulties and high self-dependency, thanks to KAU's facilities and services to Students with Disability. KAU has further established, in 2017, the Vice Deanship for People with Special Needs, which provides world-class facilitation services and leadership in serving the community of students with special needs and is the first of its kind in all universities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
KAU annually publishes its student handbook policy which is considered as a positive discrimination as it includes a special guiding program, for applicants with disabilities, that
is offered at the beginning of each semester to introduce new students with special needs to the available facilities and services to raise their awareness about their university rights and help them benefit and practice their activities similar to their normal peers.
deals with all issues and problems of new university students with special needs.
provides advisory services on an ongoing basis for this category, and supervises the implementation of all the requirements they need.
Moreover, and as a positive discrimination, each semester
a course is offered on the culture of dealing with people with special needs, targeting faculty members and all university employees.
a copy of the academic guides printed in Braille is provided for blind students.
faculties’ guidance stickers are explained, indicating the location of the pathways for students with motor disabilities and their dedicated pathways at the various entrances and buildings of university colleges.
In this regards, KAU publishes its admission policy which states the admission conditions without any discriminative rule or condition. Rather, and as a positive discrimination, it explicitly requires official documents for applicants with special needsand states that applicants with disabilities are exempted from some admission requirements and are provided with a special admission process and some preferential conditions .
Blind applicants are exempt from some admission requirements.
Special Admission Programs for Applications of Students with Disabilities
Positive Discrimination for Under-Represented Groups
For the sake of supporting under-represented groups, a new strategic plan for deaf education, in the university, has been lately deployed, where the university has put in place a number of strategic plans to serve this class, the last of which is the strategic plan for deaf education that aims to make the university an ideal and attractive environment for them according to the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and aims to open a new specialization for male and female students every year. Starting 2019, Female students, with severe hearing disabilities, were accepted in the Fashion Industry Program at the College of Home Economics which is a unique program designed specifically for the deaf in which students study an introductory year developed specifically for the program.
And for further support, King Abdulaziz University, represented by the Faculty of Tourism, has allocated 10% of the travel and tourism diploma seats for students with special needs to train and qualify them to the job market, in support of the university to train such an important segment of the Saudi society. This initiative comes from the university to show special attention and care for students with special needs (under-represented groups). It also falls within the strategic plans of the social responsibility of the university to provide a scientific degree that covers theoretical and scientific aspects in accordance with local aspirations and international standards, and in order to develop the competitive capabilities of male and female students, in under-represented groups of the university, contribute to building community partnership, and develop programs to care for students with special needs.
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