Saudi- Scholarship rules 'confusing'

(MENAFN- Arab News) WASHINGTON: Scholarship students are complaining about the lack of clear scholarship policies and requirements and are questioning the legality of the Ministry of Education's basis of Royal Order No. D/3/17752.
Scholarship student Mohammed Ibrahim said when students visit the scholarship regulations and requirements on the Ministry of Education's website they find it to be totally different from the case in reality.
'First of all we are not employed scholarship students but we are required not to be employed in order to be accepted into the scholarship program' he said. 'Secondly we find that employed scholarship students get benefits that we ourselves don't get.'
He says employed students can study in any university even if it is full and all they need is the approval of the employer for this university.
'Other scholarship students are not permitted to study in full universities which shows that different regulations are being applied to employed and unemployed students' he said.
'How do we know as scholarship students in the program that all the measures taken by the ministry or the cultural missions are regulatory and based on the law?'
He said the regulations were put in place to regulate the relationship between the government authority and the citizen and thus citizens should be aware of these rights in order to ensure they are being applied correctly.
In 2011 explained Ibrahim the cultural attache in the US Mohammed Al-Eissa announced that the 75 percent requirement for the accompanying individual was canceled and that the accompanying individual can complete their studies even if the original scholarship student's education has been completed.
He says the ministry has reinstated this condition thus leading to problems for many people who accompany scholarship students abroad.
According to student Abdulaziz Othman the conditions and requirements are not clear and the ministry is imposing conditions that do not apply.
'All regulations address students who are government employees but we are not employees of any sector and thus cannot understand what laws the ministry bases its decisions on' he said.
He said the first line of the regulations on the ministry's website stipulates this clearly. The opening article for example reads 'The purpose of the scholarship for employees is to improve their efficiency and productivity and increase their skills in order to suit the interests of the workplace.'