The Ministry of Higher Education has instructed 25 public universities in the country not to renew the contracts of expatriate professors over the age of 60.

A recent report in local media had said the Minister of Higher Education sent a letter to the directors of these universities not to submit requests to the Council of Higher Education for contract renewals.

However, the ministry has decided that it would still empower the education boards of universities to renew the contracts of these expatriate employees without referring to the council. According to the ministry, public university boards are authorized to renew the contracts of non-Saudi staff with a limit of 10 years for professors, five for assistant professors and three for other faculty members.

There are 25,909 teaching staff at the country’s public universities, according to statistics from the ministry. About 15,000 or 62 percent are expatriates, consisting of nearly 10,000 men and 4,700 women faculty members.

A total of 3,238 Saudi and expatriate faculty members are professors, 6,405 are associate professors and 16,266 are assistant professors, according to the data.

 
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