His Excellency the Minister of Education, Dr. Hamad bin Muhammad Al Sheikh, chaired the meeting held via closed-circuit television with university presidents to discuss the mechanism for evaluating final exams in universities during the period of suspension of the study due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the beginning of the meeting, His Excellency the Minister of Education valued the efforts of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Highness the Crown Prince, may Allah safeguard them, to provide and harness all the capabilities for university students to continue their education without halting even for a single day. His Excellency noted the importance of continuing the process until the last day of the approved academic calendar, emphasizing to the university presidents the importance of ensuring fairness of the exam evaluation process for all options available in the universities, in the interest, first and foremost, of the male and female students.

Dr. Al Al-Sheikh stated that the distance education in universities has made unprecedented strides, both on the level of figures, which reached more than 1,200,000 users attending 107,000 hours of instruction in over 7,600 virtual classes, and on the level of educational returns achieved for male and female students without any educational losses. His Excellency praised the efforts of the public and private universities in switching to distance education the day after the decision to suspend studies. He explained that the ministry is working with universities during this COVID-19 pandemic crisis to coordinate distance education efforts in order to prevent any discrepancies in the evaluation process or variance in application, given that all efforts are dedicated to serving the male and female students and that we are confident that our rational leadership, may Allah bless it, is capable of achieving this.

His Excellency discussed with the university presidents the mechanism for the final exam evaluation in universities, which ended with the following recommendations:

First: the university educational process shall continue effectively and qualitatively, thereby contributing to motivating male and female students to continue their educational journey.

Second: the option to withdraw from a course or a number of courses, to apologize for not continuing the study of the semester, or o withdraw from the semester, for private universities and colleges, is available to all male and female students in all types of education (regular, virtual learning, distance learning) until Thursday, 30 Sha`ban, 1441 A.H., corresponding to 23 April, 2020 A.C., bearing in mind that withdrawal or apology is not counted from the student’s credit. Thus, male and female university students will have time to review their total grades for the semester activities and take the appropriate decision in this regard.

Third: the final exams for all types of education (regular, virtual learning, distance learning) will be held at the scheduled time. i.e., 3 Ramadan, 1441 A.H.; they shall not start before this date. His Excellency the Minister of Education pointed out that, in light of this crisis, universities and colleges can hold some final exams during the evening period, taking into account the conditions of students in the holy month of Ramadan.

Fourth: based on Article 22 of the Regulations for Study and Examinations for the Undergraduate Level, colleges at public universities as well as private universities and colleges are directed to increase the grades assigned to the course semester activities to a total 80 marks from the total grade, with 20 marks for the final evaluation. Some courses that have specific characteristics can determine the proper way in this regard.

Fifth: the GPA for this semester will not be considered in any academic warning, for all male and female students.

Sixth: male and female students are exempt from being denied entry to the final exam for all the courses of this semester.

Seventh: in coordination between the Deanship of Admission and Registration, the Deanship of Information Technology, and the relevant technical bodies within the universities, the student grades analysis feature is activated for the previous semesters and the Student Information System will be enabled to take decisions automatically, in a way that serves the interest of the students and contributes to improving their GPA. This will be implemented by changing the final score option from the approved grade system to the "pass/fail" system, which contributes to raising the GPA. In the event that this process fails technically, the student is given the option, before the start of the final exams, to choose between the approved grading system or the "pass/fail" system.

Eighth: colleges will be directed to deal with clinical and practical courses in accordance with Article (26) of the Regulations for Studies and Examinations for the Undergraduate Level, which states that it is permissible to exclude the decisions of seminars, research and courses of a practical and field nature from the provisions of Articles (22,23، 24) or some of them.

Ninth: colleges will be directed to deal with courses that do not have midterm or final exams, such as field and cooperative educational training, by evaluating the students for the period they spent in training before attendance at workplaces was suspended, and by giving male and female students some assignments for the post-suspension period.

Tenth: colleges will be directed on how to deal with courses that do not have semester activities, only having final exams, such as graduation projects and the like. The requirements for these courses will continue to be completed in coordination with the course instructor. Final tests are held for these courses using the appropriate mechanism.

Eleventh: whatever applies to the different years of study also applies to the preparatory year programs. The universities may take what they deem appropriate in determining some streams of the preparatory year or basic academic courses that are used to allocate students in academic programs by adopting a system of grades for them. The student should be given the option to apologize for not continuing the semester, if they so desire.

Twelfth: universities should hold the final exams for the Advanced Affiliation Programs remotely, a week or two before the start of the pre-determined final exams. If the conditions are not appropriate for taking the test on time, the male and female students are given an "Incomplete" grade, provided that an alternative test is held at a later time and according to the mechanism available.

Thirteenth: whatever applies to undergraduate study programs (bachelor's and diploma) also applies to postgraduate study programs. Universities may take what they deem appropriate regarding the postponement of the comprehensive examination at the doctoral level, holding the test at a later time and according to the available mechanism.

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