In its annual achievements report, the Scholarships Department at Umm Al-Qura University stated that the number of UQU external scholarship students amounted to 850 and the number of internal scholarship students amounted to 256. His Excellency the UQU President, Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail, reviewed the report in his office yesterday in the presence of the UQU Vice President for Postgraduate Studies and Scientific Research, Dr. Thamir Al-Harbi. The General Supervisor of the Scholarships Department, Dr. Basim Anas Makhdoum; the Director of the Scholarships Department, Wael Shaldoum; and the representative of the Scholarships Unit, Asharf Al-Husaini, were also present.

During the meeting, His Excellency Prof. Abdullah reviewed the achievements of the Scholarships Department, including the establishment of the Admissions and Financial Guarantees Unit, in order to help those who wish to receive a scholarship find a place in the Master's and PhD programs. His Excellency added that this unit also helps the applicants complete the requirements for obtaining the study visas.

The Scholarships Department urged the colleges and departments affiliated to it to obtain admission from distinguished international universities to various and rare specializations in order to improve and develop the educational outputs of the university affiliates. This will have a clear impact on academic achievement and will raise the quality of scientific research.

The report explained the program to prepare those students wishing to travel abroad on scholarships, and the mechanism of following up the requests sent via the 'Safeer' program. The report also stated that the 'Scholarship Student' platform has been launched to facilitate dealing with and finalizing the scholarship students' requests in record time. In addition, all the scholarship students' transactions have been automated, thereby giving easy access to each scholarship student's data and enabling regular follow up of the data. At the end of the meeting, the General Supervisor of the Scholarships Department, Dr. Basim Makhdoum, presented a number of proposals to develop the procedures mechanism adopted by the department.