University education for Saudi women in recent years has witnessed a tremendous development at the quantitative and qualitative levels, both in terms of development programs, specific initiatives or strategic plans for women since the foundation of the Kingdom by late King Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman, the Ministry of Education reported in its latest statistical report.

Women have accounted for 51.8% of registered students at Saudi universities, and achieved a remarkable increase in the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program for Foreign Scholarships in disciplines previously unavailable to them. The male-female ratio at private universities is 51-49%.

The number of female college students at public universities increased from 511,593 in 2012 to 551,192 in 2013 and from 26,589 in 2012 to 33,686 in 2013 at private universities.

Since the launch of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program in 2005, the Ministry of Education has encouraged female students to take advantage of the program. Today, females scholarship students are enrolled at universities in 57 countries, with most attending U.S. universities (18,221), followed by Europe (6,754), Canada (2,923), and Australia and New Zealand (1,445).