The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Prime Minister-Chair of the Higher Education Council, has approved a number of decisions taken by the Higher Education Council at its sixty-fifth session. The Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Anqari, said that the Council approved the establishment of some deanships in Saudi universities, including the establishment of the Deanship of the preparatory year at Shaqra University, where:
Preparatory year is a stage of preparing the student before joining one of the following colleges: Medicine - Medical Sciences - Pharmacy - Engineering - Computer and Information Technology - Faculty of Science (Physics - Mathematics - Chemistry).
The preparatory year primarily aims at preparing the student for a new stage of his life, that is the university stage, by promoting his skills in English language, computer, and a set of basic sciences that the student needs in his major studies.