Terms of Use of the University Website:

Policy

The website of Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) in Saudi Arabia (hereinafter referred to as the “UQU Portal” or “Portal”) is available for personal use by visitors.

Access and use of this Portal is subject to these Terms and Conditions of Use and the laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Your access to this site constitutes your agreement, without limitation or qualification, to these Terms and Conditions of Use, whether you are a registered user or not. This takes effect from the date on which you first use this Portal.

Use of available information on this Portal is at your own risk. Use of the Portal is governed by a set of terms and conditions that are subject to regular updates and modifications as and when appropriate. Any modification or update to any of these Terms and Conditions goes into effect once approved by the Portal Administration. The user should regularly review the Terms of Use and disclaimer principles in order to keep updated with any modifications introduced. Your continued use of the Portal following the posting of any modification signifies your acceptance of such modification made to the Terms and Conditions of Use, bearing in mind that these Terms and Conditions involve property rights. Further, the Portal Administration is not obligated to announce any updates made to these terms.

Operational Policy and Procedures:

1. Restrictions on Use: By using the UQU Portal, you agree as a user NOT to:

• Make available or upload files that contain software or other material, data, or information not owned by or licensed to you;
• Use this Portal in any way to send any commercial "spam" emails, or any similar misuse of the UQU Portal;
• Make available or upload files that may contain a virus or corrupt data on this Portal;
• Publish, post, distribute, or disseminate defamatory, infringing, pornographic, indecent, material violating Islamic teachings, or other unlawful material or information via the UQU Portal;
• Engage through the UQU Portal in any activities that are considered illegal or unlawful in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;
• Advertise any product or service that would cause the UQU Portal to violate any applicable law or regulation of any jurisdiction;
• Use any device, software, or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper operation of the UQU Portal;
• Take any action that imposes an unreasonably or inappropriately large load on the UQU Portal infrastructure.

2. Disclaimer: The person or the party in charge of uploading files or data to the UQU Portal shall assume any judicial responsibility resulting from such matter, including uploading files containing private or copyrighted intellectual property of others, patented material, or content violating the general policies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The university and UQU Portal Administration hereby disclaim legal responsibility.
3. Hyper-linking to UQU Portal: Except as set forth below, it is prohibited to transfer or copy any of the contents of the UQU Portal, create any electronic links related to it, or display any of the same within a frame.

• It is permitted to include links related to the UQU Portal on any other website whose objectives and general orientation does not conflict with the objectives, policies, and frameworks of the UQU Portal.
• Under no circumstance shall the UQU Portal be considered a participant of or engaged in anything whatsoever, be it trademarks, logos, commercial or service codes, or any other means used or which appear on the websites linked to the UQU Portal or any of its contents.
• UQU reserves all rights to disable any links to any site containing inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, or unlawful topics; or any names, material, or information that violate any applicable law, intellectual property, proprietary, or privacy rights.
• UQU reserves the right to disable any unauthorized links that contradict the UQU Portal's objectives and directions, and disclaims any responsibility for the contents available on any other website reached by links to or from this Portal.

4. Hyper-linking from the UQU Portal:

• Links to other portals and/or websites are provided as a convenience to the user. The UQU Portal is not responsible for the content or reliability of the linked portals and/or websites, and it does not endorse their contents. Use of links to access such websites or portals shall be entirely at your own risk.
• UQU content management team aims to replace broken links to other sites. However, the UQU Portal has no control over such links and does not guarantee that the links provided on this site will function properly.

5. Protection against Viruses: UQU Portal Administration exerts its utmost efforts to examine and test material at all stages of production. However, it is better for you to run an anti-virus program on all materials downloaded from the Internet. The UQU Portal shall not be liable for any loss, disruption, or damage affecting your data or your computer system as a result of connecting to this Portal or using material within the Portal.
6. Waiver: The UQU Portal, services, information, materials, and functions are available for visitors to access for personal use and convenience on an "as is" and “as available” basis, without any representations, promises, or warranties of any kind whatsoever.

We, the UQU Portal administrators, cannot guarantee or bear the responsibility for any disconnections, errors, or inaccuracies that may arise from the use of this Portal, its contents, or any other website linked to it with or without our knowledge.

Any communication or information that the user may transmit through this Portal shall not be entitled to proprietary or confidential status, especially given that the portal deals with such information according to the declared and explicit mechanisms of confidentiality and security of the information. Any use or interaction within this site shall neither grant nor be intended to grant the user any rights, licenses, or other privileges whatsoever.

In this respect, the university's waiver of any right available to it, under these Terms and Conditions, on occasion or in certain situations, does never constitute a continued and spontaneous waiver of any right on other occasions or in other situations.

7. Limitation of Liability: The services provided through the UQU Portal to process online applications and obtain information regarding various government agencies and authorities are offered for your convenience only. You hereby acknowledge your full awareness that Internet communications may be subject to interference or exposure by third parties, and that the Portal does not replace information available through official channels, and that applications and administrative steps can still be performed directly before the relevant authority.

Therefore, use of this Portal remains at your own risk as a user and the UQU Portal shall in no event be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever that you may incur on account of using, visiting, relying on any statement, opinion, or announcement, or whatsoever may result in terms of operational issues, or disconnection, or internet access problems, or equipment failure, or software breakdown, or affects on the behavior or ideas of a person accessing the website. You hereby acknowledge and agree that your sole and exclusive remedy for any damage or loss incurred as a result of your accessing or using this Portal is to refrain from or discontinue using or accessing it.

8. Indemnification: The user hereby agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless UQU or any of its affiliated departments; and you exonerate any entities, employees, and agents in charge of managing, maintaining, updating, and presenting the UQU Portal from any and all liabilities that may arise in connection with any claim arising from any breach by the user of these Terms and Conditions of Use or any applicable laws, whether in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the place where you reside.
9. Termination of Use: We, the UQU Portal administrators, may in our sole discretion terminate, block, or suspend your access to and use of this Portal without notice and for any reason, including, for example, violation of these Terms and Conditions of Use in addition to any other conduct which may, in our sole assessment, be unlawful or harmful to others. In the event of termination, you shall no longer be authorized to access this Portal.
10. Property Rights: This Portal is technically supervised by the Department of Information Technology, a UQU department in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. All the materials available at this Portal, including information and graphics (content), are protected by virtue of copyrights, trademarks, and other property right forms.

Since one of the main objectives of the Portal is to prepare skilled citizens qualified to perform their duties related to the advancement of their nation in light of the principles of Islam, it is only allowed for personal and non-profit usage to benefit from the content of the portal and any information published on it, meanwhile underscoring the fact that the UQU Portal is the source of that content and information.

Furthermore, it is not allowed under any circumstances to sell, license, rent, modify, copy, imitate, re-print, download, advertise, transfer, distribute, publicly display, edit, or create works derived from any of this Portal's materials or content for audience or commercial purposes without obtaining the prior written consent of Umm Al-Qura University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Modification of any kind to the Portal content is strictly prohibited. Graphics and images on this Portal are protected by copyright, and may not be reproduced or appropriated in any manner without the prior written consent of UQU in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

11. Judicial Reference: The user hereby agrees to be exclusively subject to the judiciary authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with respect to all claims and disputes arising from their use of this Portal. Arabic is the official language of the Portal and will be used to resolve any disputes arising from your use of the portal or any information contained in it.
12. General Terms and Conditions:

• All materials and information on this Portal are scientific, Islamic, and non-profitable.
• Arabic is the primary language for using the Portal and benefiting from all materials published on it. The translation of any materials published on this Portal aims at presenting an additional service. Hence, you cannot depend on the available translation to interpret any dispute in terms of the content of the Portal.
• Users of the site, whether a site administrator or a faculty member, must adhere to the language specified for publication. Arabic content is published on the Arabic interface, while English, French, and Spanish content shall be published in their respective places and language. The Deanship of Information Technology is entitled to suspend any site that does not adhere to the Terms of Use.
• All regulations and laws published on the Portal, whether they are related to the university or other authorities, may be subject to translation to interpret their meanings for additional benefit. However, the Arabic text for all such regulations and laws constitutes the basic reference. Therefore, the user cannot depend on the translation to elicit any information or details.
• The portal may contain a number of channels and tools of e-Participation, such asforums, questionnaires, blogs, voting system, visitors' comments, and subscriptions.
• The Portal administrators set a number of measures and restrictions on the usage of all e-participation channels to guarantee the highest desired benefit in terms of electronic participation. Hence, the usage of these channels constitutes permanent consent to the measures and restrictions of use.
• The university has the complete right to delete or not publish any comment or posts for the portal's users that are considered by the Portal Administration to be inappropriate.
• Visitors to the UQU Portal should review all files related to information confidentiality and privacy, clients' charter, support and assistance, social networks, and other information available on the Portal that demonstrates the nature of the relationship between the Portal and its visitors.
• In the event that there are any enquiries or opinions regarding the privacy and disclaimer terms, you can contact the Portal Administration through the following email:[email protected].

13. University's Policy of E-Participation: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is leading a prosperous era in which the society enjoys welfare thanks to the ambitious development vision of good leadership, which has helped all sectors to move forward in a sustainable development process, where joint action and constructive dialogue seem to be the cornerstones.

Based on the principles and fundamentals of strategic action undertaken by Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia, it stressed the need for all interested parties and stakeholders to take part in the development of public policies and strategic plans for all the university's projects and initiatives. Great attention should be paid to consolidating the correct doctrine and Islamic concepts in various fields of science and the arts. It also contributes to the development of human resources and the provision of the required services in the public and private sectors, in accordance with the country's rapid development needs, in order to continuously develop the academic and educational sector in the Kingdom and improve its services in an integrated manner.

Thanks to the technical progress that has taken place in all aspects of life, Umm Al-Qura University has introduced easy technical mechanisms that help everyone to communicate their constructive vision and fruitful suggestions to the university's top officials, under the leadership of His Excellency, the UQU President. This is known as e-Participation, which is simply to open a number of channels of communication and electronic interaction that convey the views and visions of visitors to the portal, including citizens, residents, and the business sector, to electronically reach the people or departments concerned to enable them to respond and react quickly to all the posts while ensuring the protection of the principle of information privacy during this interaction.

Looking at Umm Al-Qura University's history since its inception, you find that the principles of consultation, dialogue, and respect for opposing opinions have been, and still are, fundamental to the work, with the aim of improving all the services provided to the beneficiaries of the services of Umm Al-Qura University. Over the past several years, the university, through its various departments, deanships, and colleges, has adopted all forms of interaction in terms of provision of views, proposals, comments, and complaints directed by all who deal directly with the university or with any of the affiliated institutions under its supervision. It is worth noting that all those comments, opinions, and proposals were dealt with and responded to in accordance with specific mechanisms to ensure the strengthening of constructive links with the public.

Umm Al-Qura University aims, through its Portal, to develop and activate as many electronic channels as possible to suit the needs of its visitors.

14. Participation in Decision-Making and Policy-Making: Umm Al-Qura University aims not only to gather the largest number of contributions, visions, and ideas presented by visitors of the Portal, but to activate these contributions and turn them into concrete results in all aspects of the university's work, starting from priority setting to policy-making and making appropriate decisions. The university relies on constructive participation in drawing up the general features and frameworks of all its works, based on the necessity of joint action, in which everyone contributes to building a better society in which all members enjoy the highest sense of well-being. In accordance with this strategic approach, the UQU Portal has developed a number of e-participation channels and tools that aim to involve all in the decision-making and policy-making related to the academic and educational sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Participation in decision-making and policy-making is as follows:

• A topic will be opened up for discussion through any of the e-participation channels available on the Portal, while highlighting the most important past contributions and their current results, how to participate in them, and when the future contributions will be open.
• A number of standards and controls are developed according to the electronic channel of participation to ensure that the user is committed to the goal of participation and provide a constructive opinion that can be used away from any personal criticism or inappropriate use of these channels.
• Stressing the need to not participate more than once to ensure the accuracy of the results.
• Monitoring the results of participation and conducting a detailed analysis of these results.
• Sending the participation results to the relevant departments to begin to prioritize them according to that result and to begin implementation immediately.
• Announcing results to users while highlighting the steps taken.
• From the moment the Portal Administration decided to benefit from the electronic channels, especially the e-Portal to activate the principle of community e-participation, it did the following:
  • Several issues were put to the vote and opened up for discussion.
  • A number of blogs about the university's services and how to develop them were published.
  • All propositions and contributions of the Portal visitors were analyzed and utilized in different work procedures.
  • The scope of community participation was broadened across different social networks.
  • The Portal works to keep abreast of the continuous development in the field of community e-participation to achieve its objectives and improve and raise the quality of its services.

15. Client Charter: UQU Portal is an important channel of communication between the university and the beneficiaries of its services. Given that any relationship between two parties requires the setting of general guidelines and standards to ensure boosting and developing such a relationship to realize the highest benefits, the UQU Portal has established a charter for such beneficiaries and users to provide them with the Portal's duties toward its visitors and the visitors' responsibilities towards the Portal.
16. Our Duties:

• To live up to the vision and mission of UQU, and to achieve the objectives of its Portal,we seek to provide the best possible services to the users of the Portal, including citizens,residents, and visitors, as well as the business sector. To recognize what the Portal will do to achieve these goals, we have identified the most prominent obligations of the Portal, as follows:
• Assistance and Support: The portal includes a department for assisting and supporting its visitors, bearing in mind that the support service should cover the biggest potential number of visitors. Therefore, the Portal provides readable content and a variety of visual materials, in addition to help files. The Help and Support Department provides detailed information and links to some assistance forms, such as frequently asked questions (FAQ), easy usage, and mobile version.
• Privacy and Confidentiality of Information: The UQU Portal puts the confidentiality of the information of its users and visitors as its top priority. The Portal Administration makes every effort to provide valuable services to all its beneficiaries. (Privacy and Information Confidentiality Policy.)
• E-Participation Mechanisms: The Portal Administration is committed to providing various mechanisms for communication with clients to ensure the quality of the services provided.

17. User Duties: Since the UQU Portal is committed to provide users and beneficiaries with the best services, there are a number of responsibilities that these clients should shoulder to ensure that they receive the benefit as determined by the Portal Administration. Some details about clients' responsibilities towards the Portal are listed below:

• Terms of Use of Portal: Users should review and abide by the UQU Portal's Terms of Use.
• Complaints and Enquiries: The Portal designed a series of channels and tools that enable its users to participate effectively and deliver their views to all officials, including the UQU President. The Portal Administration has set a number of conditions and standards for the users to follow in order to ensure that their opinions and complaints are delivered to the university officials.