His Excellency the Advisor at the Royal Court and the President of the Education and Training Evaluation Commission, Dr. Ahmad Al-Eissa, presented the Institutional Accreditation Certificate earned by the university to His Excellency the UQU President, Prof. Dr. Abdullah Bafail. This presentation took place during the activities of the Third Quality Forum on Higher Education, organized today by the commission at the main conference hall of Fairmont Hotel in Riyadh. This forum aims at identifying the most important updates and developments in the field of quality and academic accreditation in higher education.

In a press statement, Dr. Ahmad Al-Eissa stressed the importance of institutional accreditation in achieving quality, and underlined that institutional accreditation of universities signifies that these universities have met the required quality conditions related to living up to the standards and performance measures within the academic departments.

He also emphasized the need for continued pursuit of excellence in quality, which is assessed through the educational performance of the academic staff members, evaluation of the students' learning, and curricula quality analysis. He then expressed his pleasure at the achievement made by Umm Al-Qura University in gaining institutional accreditation, adding that there only remains for the university to obtain program accreditation for a small number of its academic disciplines.

On his part, His Excellency the UQU President, Prof. Abdullah Bafail, congratulated all the academic staff members,  employees and students on this accomplishment. He especially thanked the University Vice Presidency for Development and Entrepreneurship, represented by the Deanship of Academic Development and Quality. In conclusion, he stressed that institutional accreditation is one of the objectives set by the university as part of its strategies to reach the maximum levels of quality in the academic and research process, with the aim of improving the university outcomes in accordance with the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030 and the requirements of the labor market.

The next to speak was the Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Hani Ghazi. He explained that institutional accreditation was achieved based on the development that has occurred in the learning outcomes and the infrastructure of the academic environment, in addition to the strategic plan, administrative systems, learning and scientific research resources, and community service. He then pointed out that the next stage will require working to obtain program accreditation for the colleges, since this forms a part of the overall quality of the university.

Finally, he said, "About 75 percent of the colleges at the university have received international program accreditation, and our ambition is to extend this to obtain accreditation for the rest of the colleges, with the collaboration of the Education Assessment and Training Commission." He then praised the support given by His Excellency the UQU President, and the efforts exerted by the quality team at the Deanship of Development as well as all the colleges and university staff.