General overview on the Preparatory Diplomas Programs

The universities and the community colleges through out the Kingdom accept approximately 80.000 students annually in their academic programs. This number represents about 40% of second secondary stage graduates. It is expected that this number will continue to rise in the years to come as a result of the considerable expansion in education offered by the Ministry of Education, consequently; the number of students who will not be accepted in the universities will also keep rising. This phenomenon will exacerbate unless careful and well-examined solution are put forward to cope with this increased number of graduates to make them productive members in their society.
The post secondary stage primarily aims to prepare and equip students to go through new phase that qualify them to support their families and those who missed the opportunity to enroll universities will face great difficulties in their life so that Preparatory Diplomas Programs were introduced to reduce effects of this critical problem. This program, and through its various specializations, works on qualifying those students to join the labor market directly and to be productive citizens.
Based on this vision, King Abdul-Aziz University represented in the Deanship of Community Service and Continuous Learning, has provided to the opportunity to second secondary graduates to enroll  in the preparatory diplomas Programs which last form one or two academic years. These programs qualify their enrollees to join the labor market directly.