The Evolution of Private Higher Education in Kuwait
Imad M. Al-Atiqi
Secretary General, Private University Council- Kuwait
Imad@puc.edu.kw
Lafi M. Alharbi
President, Arab Open University- Kuwait Branch
lalharbi@hotmail.com
Farida M. Ali
Deputy Secrteary General, Private University Council-Kuwait
faridah@puc.edu.kw
Private Universities Council – Kuwait
WWW.PUC.EDU.KW
1. Introduction
The Kuwaiti government has recently taken fundamental steps in
facilitating private higher education. In early 2000 the Kuwaiti National
Assembly passed what is known as law 34/2000 for Private Universities
in the country. Immediately thereafter, the Ministry of Higher Education
(MHE) formed a special committee formed of senior expertise in the filed
of higher education to propose the executive bylaws. A proposal for
organizing the private universities in Kuwait was put forward to the
Minister of High Education and. An open meeting comprising various
representatives of the public and the private sectors of the Kuwaiti
community was organized and presented with the proposed bylaws to be
discussed. At that meeting, the final version of the executive bylaws was
drafted for approval. It was only October 2000, and the executive bylaws
were passed by the Kuwaiti’s council of ministers. It is also worth noting
that it was the executive office which put together the procedures and
regulations for licensing and accrediting private institution.
The following discussion will cast light on the evolution of Private
higher education in Kuwait, the legal framework and executive bylaws of
private university at Kuwait. Particularly, we will present, herewith in
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some detail, the formation of the Private University’s Council (PUC),
policies adopted for licensing private institutions; criteria for evaluating
the proposed institution, such as: the proposed mission for the institution,
administration, teaching staff, facilities, student and financial affairs. In
addition, quality assurance and other key success factors shall be
outlined.
2- Chronological Development
2.1 The seeding phase: The evolution of private higher education
in Kuwait began with interest from the private sector which formalized at
least three groups that demanded licensure prior to the government
action. Intellectual efforts that contributed to the awareness of society
needs were also taking place in Kuwait University. The project titled
"Establishments of Community Colleges in Kuwait" provided evidence of
demand exceeding supply and suggested governance options using
feasibilities study and Delphi type surveys (1). The policy makers
encouraged the government to act and an executive office was initiated in
1999. A law was then drafted and passed in July 2000 by the lawmakers
as law 34/2000 for the establishment of private universities (2). Another
executive office was formed for drafting the executive bylaws for
implementation and the council of ministers granted approval in January
2001. The minister of higher education acted soon and the governing
body, the Private Universities Council (PUC) was formed in May 2001
(3). The council set out to work immediately, with the assistance of the
exceutive committee who drafted the original bylaws and proceeded with
approving the licensure guidelines and procedure in July 2001. Several
applications were received and the first application obtained license was
given for The Gulf University for Science and Technology in July 2002
(4). The license is issued by the highest authority in the country i.e. the
Emir himself. Other parallel development was taking place at the same
time which was the selection of the State of Kuwait to house the Arab
Open University, a pan Arab project supported by the UNESCO and Gulf
Countries governments under academic guidance from the British Open
University. This was actually inacted by law 31/2002 (5) and operation
immediately commenced late in Oct. 2002. This Arab Open University
(AOU) has branches in several Arab countries, and Kuwait Branch was
adopted under the PUC umbrella in January 2004, via a ministerial decree
(6).
This systematic chronology illustrates the speed of development
and government commitment for this new economic sector in Kuwait,
taking into consideration that the education minister seat was rotated
twice from 2000 to 2003.
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2.2 The bandwagon effect: the private university office received
upward of 50 petitions to open private universities, junior colleges and
branch campuses in the period from 2001 to 2003. Out of these around 16
applications were turned in but only 5 licenses were granted by the end of
2003. They were two vocational colleges, two universities and one MBA
school in addition to AOU. Four more licenses were granted by the end of
2005.The license requires international affiliation with qualified
universities or colleges. Most are with American schools, two with
Australian TAFE institutes (one foreign branch and one with articulation
agreement) and the MBA college is a branch from Maastricht school of
business from Holland. The Arab Open University is affiliated with the
British OU with a joint degree agreement.
By March 2007 we still have the same number of 10 licenses. Six
of these are operational, with students in excess of 10000. For
comparison purpose, consider that the first public university in Kuwait,
Kuwait University commenced operation in 1966 and has now a
population of almost 20000. The other four licenses are either in
construction or seeking construction permits.
2.3 Internal Organization: the administrative processes that took
place so far can be classified into three categories; internal organization,
regulatory orders and supporting activities. The internal organization
started with the PUC formation. This was followed later by the
replacement of the executive office with a general secretariat in July 2002
to provide implementation support for the council (7). The council also
formed two committees in Dec. 2002: the licensing committee and the
accreditation committee (8). The general secretariat was temporarily
managed by the former director of the executive office till a general
secretary was formally appointed by the Emir as a deputy minister in
Nov. 2003 (9). The general secretariat was commissioned to follow
implementation of the PUC decrees but had no formal executive power
till Nov. 2006 when the Council of Ministers formally recognized it as
the sole executive arm to the PUC and provided it with administrative and
financial authorities (10). As for the PUC itself two more committees
were formed in 2005: the internal scholarship committee and the research
and development committee (11). The functions of these latter
committees will be discussed later.
2.4 Regulatory Orders: Soon after the PUC commenced
operations, it started putting together a comprehensive package of
guidelines for the perspective license seekers. The package was designed
to ensure transparency of the process as well as smoothness and quality
assurance. A noteworthy component of the package is the policy
statement of the PUC which highlights the goals and objectives of the
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PUC from licensing HE institutions. The mechanics of application
registration and review is also included to ensure uniformity of treatment.
Of special interest is the guidelines set forth for preparation of market and
feasibility study and building/facility standards for cost estimation.
Furthermore, the qualified list of accepted international institutions for
branch campuses, articulation and affiliation is also included as well as
the minimum expectations in the affiliation agreement.
As for the accreditation process, an innovative process and was
developed between the years 2002-2004 after considerable research and
brainstorming. These will be explained briefly later in this paper. The
scope of PUC authority is so comprehensive that it is not possible to
provide details of all activities within regulations. But we should mention
briefly that rules and guidelines for transcript/degree endorsement,
internal scholarship and research and professional developments were all
developed and implemented.
2.5 Supporting Activities: the establishment of private
universities would not have been possible without co-operation from
other government agencies/authorities. On the top of the list would be the
land grant facility that was awarded to PUC in the year 2002 from the
municipality. After considerable effort and considerations, six lots were
awarded in the six governorates in Kuwait, each measuring 150000 m2
(12). The ministry of Education also awarded three lots of existing
schools to be remodeled for university purposes. Housing universities in
these lots was no trivial affair, requiring considerable permits and
approvals from different departments. However, with subsidized rent that
was approved by the concerned authorities, it was worth the effort.
Another important facility available for institutions is the financial offset
program enabled by the ministry of finance. This program requires that
foreign contractors reinvest part of their profit in the country in certain
developmental projects. Several schools benefited from this program
considering that a high multiple was applied for educational projects to
offset the obligation. These facilities proved very effective in managing
the cost of establishing the schools. The third noteworthy facility was
internal scholarships which were activated Sept. 2006. Although it was
designed and orchestrated within the PUC, success of the program would
not have been possible without the HE ministers support and co-operation
from the ministry of Finance and the members of the parliament. This
program underpins the desire of PUC to pursue business model of Public
Private Partnership. The government would secure 80% of the
scholarship for qualified students and the institution would subsidize the
other 20%. The process was implemented in a co-operative decentralized
manner such that institutions advertise for the scholarships after the rules
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and procedures are set by PUC (13). The students apply within each
institution and independent reviewers screen the applications and raise it
to PUC secretariat. Over 1000 student benefited from this scheme. Most
important consideration was to provide equity for low income families to
enroll their children in private higher institutions and maintain social
coherence.
3. Private University Council (PUC)
The Private Universities Council (PUC) is an independent
organization composed of eight members in addition to its chair; the
Minister of Higher Education. The PUC memberships, who are
appointed by the Council of Ministers upon the recommendation of the
Minister of Higher Education, are specialists possessing a wide range of
experience and commitment to the filed of higher education. Those
members shall not be involved, direct or indirect, in the business of
running private education throughout the period of their membership.
The PUC fulfills the following missions (14):
 Decides on the establishment of a private institution.
 Determines the requirements of the academic credibility of
the private institution, and constantly apply quality and
control measures to insure full compliance with the proved
terms and conditions in the decree of establishing. It also
applies quality and control measure on the approved
programs of study.
 Adopts universal standards while approving programs of
study, and frequently reassesses these standards for the better
of performance and higher quality of higher education.
 Regulates measures of accreditation, accredits institutions
and their programs, and validates degrees and certificates
issued from private institutions, and equates them with their
counterparts according to the approved procedures and
regulations.
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 Looks into cases where the activities of a private institution
are to be adjourned, combined and/or cancelled.

Looks into further issues of concerned as referred by the
Minister of Higher Education.
The following diagram outlines the PUC and its active organizational
Structure.
General
secretariat
Licensing
Committee
Internal
Scholarships
Committees
Private
University
Council
Accreditation
Committee
Evaluation
Teams/Agencies
Figure (1): PUC Organizational structure.
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Research &
development
committee
4. Licensing Procedure:
Proposals for new private institutions are put forward to a
designated committee (proposal-study committee). Based on careful
examination of various parts of the proposed institution, the committee
recommends dismissal, approval, or sometimes resubmissions. The
licensing procedure takes basically two turns. Initially, a preliminary
application will be pt forward for preliminary review. If tentative
approval is issued, then, the procedure will be supplemented with a
detailed application. As the licensing procedure will be highlighted in
figure 2, it is worth mentioning herewith a brief description of the
anticipated content of each stage.
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Founder
Clarification
Preliminary Application
Licensing
committee
Phase 1
Recommendation
PUC
Preliminary approval
Rejection
Founder
comments
Detailed Application
Licensing
Committee
Phase 2
Recommendation
PUC
Final Approval
Rejection
Council of
Ministers
Institution License
by His Highness
the Amir
Figure 2 : licensing process
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4.1 Phase I: Preliminary Application.
The preliminary application will include the following details (15):
 Name of institution.
 Mission and objectives of the institution accompanied with
the institution’s administrative system and its source of fund.
This will be accompanied with a singed statement of the
founders to rule out other objectives contradicting the
institution’s statement of mission and aims.
 Names of founders whether individuals, groups, or
otherwise, and their detailed CVs.
 Affiliation with other institutions, or other bodies involved in
the funding.
 Resources (both: human and materials) available for the
establishment of the private institution.
 Financial assets allotted whether cash or otherwise, and
shares distribution of the founders.
 Detailed technical and economic feasibility study.
 The institution’s proposed structure.
 Regulations governing: policy of enrolment, academic
requirements, study fees and scholarships.
 Terms of study, examination, awarding of degrees,
certificates and diplomas, accompanied with the preapproved programs of study by the affiliate international
institution, if any.
 Programmed plan of institutional and program accreditation.
 Names of proposed First Council of Trustee and their CVs.
 The proposed dates for commencement of study.
The proposal-study committee will look into the abovementioned
detail, and thoroughly examine the content of the preliminary application
to assess to what degree the application meets conditions and standards
set by the PUC. In particular, the assessment at this stage will be chiefly
concerned with the statement of the proposed institution and to what
degree it serves the objectives of high education in the country, and if so,
does the proposed institution possess the material and human resources to
achieve its mission. If these concerns are positively answered, then the
committee recommends the concerned institution for initial approval, and
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a decree to that effect will be issued by the PUC. At this stage, the
concerned institution proceeds to file-in a detailed application.
4.2 Phase II: Detailed application
Within one year from date of the approval of the initial application,
the founders should submit the following documents (16):
 A detailed plan of the buildings, including facilities
such as: study and research halls, libraries, labs,
appliances and student activity’s services and
management buildings and service. Such plan must be
drawn on the basis of the approved standards of
efficiency by the PUC. The planned drawings should
be approved by a certified engineer and in compliance
the universal rating.
 Financial statement of guarantee to insure the
availability of the said fund for execution of the project.
This statement must be approved by PUC.
 Within six months of the submission of detailed
application, the PUC will answer back to the founders
of the decision made on their proposal, either to submit
further document, or the final approval. Upon PUC
recommendation, the Council of Ministers will issue
the decree to establish the private institution.
It is worth mentioning here that the private institution may not
commence its activity prior to proper establishment of its required
material and human resources, and a written approval by the PUC.
5. Accreditation Criteria and Procedure:
PUC requires every licensed institution to go through institutional
and academic-program accreditation. Institutional accreditation is carried
by an independent external team formed by PUC. Program accreditation
is carried by internationally recognized accreditation body in the program
field of specialization.
The institutional accreditation criteria are described by the
executive PUC bylaws as follows:
Mission:
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Private university shall aim to contribute to achieving the goals of
higher education and applied education I the country in a manner that
provides research service and serves the goals and the needs of the
developing society.
Management:
The Decree for establishing the private institution will explicitly
state its legal status, form of organization, colleges and institutes, the
Council of Trustees, and its financial resources. In addition, it states the
degrees granted and conditions for obtaining these degrees.
From date of the decree, the private institution shall enjoy an
independent legal status, and will be legally presented by its chairman to
practice the rights to obtain various types of funds, to be part of financial
contracts, and to accept donations.
Council of trustees of the private institution is the highest authority
therein and it shall look after its interests, sets its general policy, manage
its execution. In particular, it shall carry the following responsibilities:
 approves the internal regulations
 manages its funds
 elects its chairman and other key figures
 Upon permission from the PUC and the
standards determined by Council of Ministers,
the private institution shall accept donations,
grants, gifts and trust fund (waqf) in a manner
that shall not contradict its mission and
objectives
 appoints the financial auditor, which must be a
licensed accountant
 approves the annual balance sheet and financial
account.
Teaching staff:
The teaching staff at private institutions and/or the branches of
foreign universities should be holders of PhD (or equivalent). Full time
staff shall not be less than 70% of the total staff.
The appointed teaching staff with PhDs in the private institution
shall not be less than two thirds of the teaching staff. Assistants to the
teaching staff and their qualifications, titles, and their percentage to the
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overall teaching staff will be determined by the internal bylaws of the
concerned institution with consultation of the PUC.
The internal bylaws and regulations of the private institution shall
determine the rules organizing staff contracts, renewals, promotions,
system of delegating and secondments, and policy governing evaluation
of performance and others of administrative issues.
Students’ affairs & degrees and certificates
Students not obtaining a certificate of completing secondary school
study or its equivalent may not be enrolled at the private educational
institution.
Within the framework of the regulations decided at the decree, the
private institution shall establish polices, regulations, conditions and
procedures of enrolling students, procedures of following ups, dismissing,
re-entering, and graduation, as well as schema of student registration and
guidance and other issues concerning student affairs.
Financial affairs
Private institution must observe a regular maintenance of its
financial resources and keep up-to-date records of its accounts and
financial records. Periodical financial statements shall be subject to the
approval of one or more licensed auditor whom Council of Trustees shall
appoint. Council of trustees must approve the annual financial report of
the private institution.
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Technical
committee
Financial
Report
Technical
Report
Evaluation
Team
Self – assessment Report
Assessment
Report
Licensed
Institution
Feed back on Assessment
Accreditation
Report
Committee
Recommendation
PUC
Accreditation Decision
Figure 3: Institutional Accreditation Process
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6. PUC Business Model-Critical Success Factors (17)
Traditional Business
Model Feature
PUC Business
Model Feature
Long vertical organization
Flat organization (two levels of
authority)
Authority is within individuals
Authority is retained or delegated by
council
Committees are advisory
Line managers have facilitator/ advisory
role
Experience is not critical in every level
Experience/skill is critical in all levels
Administrative employees are majority
Technical employees are majority
Figure 4: Organizational Features of PUC
6.1 Flat Organization: as shown above the PUC adopted
organization that is flat. Pertinent to this structure is the retention of
power within two levels of hierarchy at maximum thus enabling one step
delegation when necessary. This arrangement sown in Figure 5 proved
very handy when faced with sudden introduction of a new system like the
internal scholarships which was conceived and implemented in 4 weeks.
Another important feature is the facilitator role of line managers such that
their function is aligned with the rest of the organization.
14
6.2 Networking association: a critical feature for the PUC is its
ability to mobilize, network and utilize available expertise through careful
selection, training, qualification and certification of professionals. A
technical Committee of Engineers was commissioned to set guidelines for
construction and supervise permits and plans. Evaluation teams were
mobilized for institutional accreditation support. External experts for
feasibility studies were qualified and short listed. International
accreditation agencies were short listed and outsourced to fill the
expertise gap. It can be said that although PUC is a government agency,
its mode of operation resembles that of an association of the private
universities, a designation often attached to it by third parties. In fact, the
universities/colleges are comfortable working with PUC secretariat as
partner while observing its role as a regulator. PUC also certifies
qualified professionals as Certified Educational Institution Auditor
(CEIA), a designation that is given to persons who demonstrated
substantial institutional quality assurance and accreditation experience,
and agreed to the code of conduct set by the PUC. Evaluation teams or
auditors are neither employees of PUC nor they are employed by the
institutions subject to the audit. They are selected or approved by PUC
concerned committees and the institutions and contracted by the
institutions. There reporting and compensation is governed by the PUC
through the general secretariat. This arrangement ensures independent
opinion that is received from these teams, some of which comes from
international QA or accreditation agencies. This trilateral arrangement is
a cornerstone for PUC business model and is shown in Figure 5.
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Figure 5: Private University Council
Business Model
Facilitator role
Authority role
PUC
S. G .
Office
Manager s
S. G.
Office
Instit
utions
ners
C
o
m
m i
t t
B o a r d s
Auditors/ Experts/
Audi
team s
s
16
e
e
s/
Adhoc
Committee
6.3 The Regulatory Model: the regulatory model follows a
standard feedback control system arrangement as shown in Figure 6. The
target or OBJECTIVE for the institutions is to be globally competent.
This is measured with a reference point of the global 200 universities
listed by the Times Higher Education Supplement or equivalent. The
PUC monitors and observes the gap that exists and put forward policies
and control tools to achieve the desired target of quality. After
considerable brainstorming and analysis, these tools or control actions
were grouped into four interactive main domains:
 license standards
 performance audits and accreditation
 scholarship system
 research and development system
PUC view these tools as critical to the success of private universities
sector. Quality assurance is considered to be dependent on the
implementation of these tools by the institutions. The General Secretariat
acts as a final control element, communicator and gate keeper for the
execution of the regulatory system ant large. The executive power given
to the general secretariat in Nov. 2006 ensures the sustainability of its
designated function.
It is important to note that these tools are implemented in parallel as
much as practical and not be considered as sequential, although their
historical evolution may suggest so. That is to say for example,
providing scholarship seats for institutions is not regarded as reward
for achieving some performance target. It is part of the system that
aims to achieve quality of performance. In a different context, we
view scholarships as a means to achieve social equity and justice for
the community as well as a means to provide the institutions with
qualified intake of students. The incentive is then applied for
institutions which achieved certain performance by controlling the
number of seats available for scholarships.
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PUC
General
secretariat
Universities /
Colleges
Globally
Competent
Global
Excellence
TOOLS
Standards
Performance
Audits
Scholarship
system
Research and
development
system
Evaluatio
n
Times Higher
Private Universities
Council
∑
Global
200
Policies
Figure 6: PUC Implements 4 Critical Tools
to Achieve Regulatory Function
7.The outcome
7.1:the response of Kuwaiti community to the law establishing
private institutions was overwhelming. Over 30 applications for
establishing private higher institutions were received. There were some
factors in favor of private institutions in Kuwait:
• Specialized institutional accreditation.
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• Mandatory international affiliation.
• Mandatory Program accreditation.
• International campus design standards.
• Little political interference.
• Training, research, development and business incubators
encouraged.
• Give priority to job market demand
7.2: as mentioned before, ten decrees have been issued to license
private higher institutions. Five private institutions have already
commenced their activities.Table (1) below lists the approved areas of
study in these institutions.
Four private institutions in Kuwait are branches of internationally
accredited institutions, and six institutions have affiliation agreement with
internationally accredited institutions. Table (2) below summarizes the
international partnership of the licensed institutions.
As of 2006/2007 academic year over 10,000 students are enrolled
in private institutions. Table (3) lists the number of students in each
institution. Table (4) provides the statistics of internal scholarships. The
approved student capacity is 18,000 and the projected capacity by year
2025 is 60,000 students.
All operating institutions have been awarded the institutional
accreditation by PUC, obtained positive quality assurance assessment
from their international partners. Three academic programs were
suspended following an accreditation exercise in one institution for two
institutions received warning for operating few academic programs
without license. This later proved to be misinterpretation of the license
scope and the institutions filed these programs for approval with PUC
which was granted.One institution obtained international program
accreditation (Kuwait Maastricht MBA program from AMBA). Three
institutions awarded their students foreign degrees through their
articulation agreements: ACK from TAFE institutes, AOU from OU and
KMBS from its mother Maastricht Business School.
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Diploma
Bachelor
Maritime
Engineering
Management and business
administration
Information science &
technology
Engineering & design
technology
Nursing
Health science
Education
English language
Master
General &strategic
management
MBA
Communication & media studies
social sciences
Hospitality and tourism
Environmental study
safety science
Management and business
administration
Computer science
Architecture
Medical and Health science
Engineering
Information science &
technology
Table (1): licensed fields of study
Country
Number of Affiliated/Branch Institution
United states of America
United Kingdom
Australia
Canada
Holland
India
Licensed
4
1
2
1
1
0
Table (2): International Partnership
20
Preliminary Approved
3
2
0
1
0
1