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King Faisal University

Preparatory Year Program

Rules regulating the study in the Preparatory Year Deanship (PYD)

The Preparatory Year Program (PYP) is applied to all students admitted to colleges participating in the Preparatory Year Deanship.

Duration of the study

The academic program of Preparatory Year Deanship consists of four quarters, and each quarter consists of at least nine weeks. An additional opportunity may be given to the student who fails in one of the courses so that his / her program does not exceed five quarters in the colleges, the College of Computer Science and Information Technology, the College of Business Administration, the College of Engineering, the College of Science, and the College of Veterinary Medicine, that apply the semester-based system. The fifth quarter will be in the summertime.

Passing the Program

  • To pass the preparatory year program the student must achieve the following:
    A. Students who have received initial admission in the following colleges:
    The College of Engineering – The College of Computer Science and Information Technology – The College of Applied Medical Sciences – The College of Business Administration (English language stream) must successfully complete all courses taught in the Preparatory Year and have a cumulative GPA of 3 out of 5 at the end of the program.
    B. Students who have received initial admission in the following colleges:
    The College of Medicine – The College of Clinical Pharmacy – The College of Dentistry must successfully complete all courses taught in the preparatory year with a cumulative GPA of not less than 3.50 out of 5.00 at the end of the program.
    C. Students who have received initial admission in the following colleges:
    The College of Science and the College of Veterinary Medicine must complete successfully all the courses taught in the Preparatory Year with a cumulative GPA of not less than 2.75 out of 5.00 at the end of the program.
  • In the event that the student does not complete the PYP by the end of the fourth quarter, s/he might be given the opportunity to study a fifth quarter so that his / her program does not exceed five quarters. This is applied for students whose colleges apply the semester-based system. These colleges are the College of Computer Science and Information Technology, the College of Business Administration, College of Engineering, College of Science, and College of Veterinary Medicine. If the student does not pass the PYP, the Deanship of Admission and Registration will allocate a college or a Diploma Program to which the student will enroll at the beginning of the next academic year according to the university standards.
  • The cumulative GPA in the Preparatory Year is not included in the undergraduate degree requirements (Bachelor's Degree).
  • If the student passes the Placement Test and achieves the required grade determined by the PYD Council, s/he will be given No Grade Pass (NP).

Academic grades

Grades are calculated in each course as follows:

Arabic Symbol English Symbol Grade Limits Points Arabic Meaning English Meaning
أ+ A+ 95 - 100 5.0 ممتاز مرتفع Exceptional
أ A 90 - 94 4.75 ممتاز Excellent
ب+ B+ 85 - 89 4.50 جيد جدا مرتفع Superior
ب B 80 - 84 4.00 جيد جدا Very Good
ج+ C+ 75 - 79 3.50 جيد مرتفع Above Average
ج C 70 - 74 3.00 جيد Good
د+ D+ 65 - 69 2.50 مقبول مرتفع High-Pass
د D 60 - 64 2.00 مقبول Pass
هـ F 0 - 59 1.00 راسب Fail
م IP - - مستمر In- Progress
ل IC - - غير مكتمل Incomplete
ح DN - 1.00 محروم Denied
ند NP 60 or more - ناجح دون درجة No grade -Pass
هد NF Less than 60 - راسب دون درجة No grade -Fail
ع W - - منسحب بعذر Withdrawn
غم US - - غير مرضي Unsatisafctory

Attendance, Postponement and Excuse from Study

  • It is mandatory for the PYD students to be regular in their lectures and practical sessions.
  • It is allowed for students to postpone or excuse their study under the following conditions. Firstly, the deferment study or excuse letter should be submitted for only one academic quarter within the period of study. Secondly, all requests and letters supported with the proper documents and reports should be submitted to the PYD Council for approval. Moreover, the request for postpone should be submitted before the starting of the academic quarter. Finally, the request for excuse should be submitted before the fourth week of the academic quarter.
  • The delay or excuse period is considered within the period required to terminate the program requirements.
  • After postpone or excuse request, if the student fails to continue his/her studies in the next academic quarter, s/he will be removed from the PYD.
  • The withdrawal request from any course in the PYD with guardian's confirmation needs or an excuse to be submitted to the PYD Council for approval, provided that the remaining contact hours must not be less than 4 hours.
  • If accepted students are not attending the PYD for one academic quarter, he/she will be removed from the PYD.

Academic Warning

  • The students of Colleges, Computer Science and Information Technology, Business Administration, Engineering, Medicine, Clinical Pharmacy, and Dentistry whose cumulative GPA is less than 3.00/5.00 will be given an academic warning.
  • The students of the College of Veterinary Sciences and the College of Science whose cumulative GPA is less than 2.75 /5.00 will be given an academic warning.

Dismissal from the PYD

The student will be dismissed from the PYD in the following circumstances.

  • A. If a student receives two academic warnings due to the cumulative GPA less than 3.00/5.00, with the exception for those, whose cumulative GPA is 2.50 or more, s/he will get an additional final opportunity. Those students must be from the Colleges of Computer Science and Information Technology, Business Administration, Engineering, Medicine, Clinical Pharmacy, and Dentistry.
  • B. If a student receives two academic warnings due to the cumulative GPA less than 2.75/5.00, with the exception for those, whose cumulative GPA is 2.25 or more, s/he will get an additional final opportunity. Those students must be from the Colleges of Veterinary Sciences and Science.
  • If the students do not complete all courses within the period mentioned in first item of these regulations.

(The University Council has the right to give an extra opportunity for some necessary cases.)

Exemption from some Courses in the PYD

  • The students may be allowed to exempt from English 1 if s/he attains the required score (determined by the PYD Council) in the placement test of English.
  • The students may be allowed to exempt from some of the English courses if his/her TOEFL(Internet Based Test) score is 61 or IELTS score is 5.5 or any equivalent score, provided that the required TOEFL/IELTS scores must be obtained within a period of one year at the time of admission into the University.
  • The exempted courses will be recorded as NP (No Grade Pass).

Attendance Rules

  • It is the responsibility of the students to be aware of their absent hours and warnings they have received for each course, either by the course faculty member or through messages sent by the Attendance System.
  • Absence excuses must be submitted to the Academic Affairs Office.

Student Disciplinary List of King Faisal University.

All students of KFU including the PYD students must adhere the disciplinary rules of the University.

Final Exam Procedures

If any student does not attend the final examination of any course in compelling circumstances, the Academic Affairs of the PYD may decide to allow the student to appear for the make-up exam, only if, the excuse submitted by the student is reasonable and justifiable. In this case, the make-up exam will be conducted before the first week of the next academic quarter, and grades scored in the make-up exam will be considered.

The Student's Grievance of Grades.

The students who wish to re-correct the final exam answer sheet, s/he has to fill out the Grievance Form in the Academic Affairs of the PYD within one week from the date of results' announcement.

Debarring Students from Final Examination.

  • All students do need to attend the lectures and the practical sessions regularly. They will be debarred from taking final examination if his/her attendance percentage is lower than the percentage level determined by the PYD Council and not less than 90% in lectures and practical sessions of each courses of the academic quarter. The debarred students due to the less attendance percentage will be considered as Fail in the respective courses.
  • The Deanship Council or whoever they may delegate exceptionally to remove the students from the debarring list, and allow him\her to take the final examinations, only if, the submitted excuse is accepted by the PYD Council. In such cases, the Deanship Council will determine the attendance percentage as not less than 70 % for each course in both lectures and practical sessions.

- If any case is not aforementioned in these Regulations, it will be applied according to the instructions, the regulations adopted by King Faisal University, the Higher Education Council, universities, executive regulations, rules, and decisions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- These instructions and regulations shall be effective and applied as of the date of approval by the University Council.

Study plan for the Colleges of Dentistry, Clinical Pharmacy, Applied Medical Sciences and Medicine


Study plan for the colleges of Dentistry, Clinical Pharmacy, Applied Medical Sciences and Medicine
Course Num Course Name Credit Hours Contact Hours
2403-401 English 1 5 20
2403-402 English 2 5 20
2403-403 English 3 5 20
2403-404 English 4 5 20
2410-305 Life Skills 1 2
2413-301 Information Technology 1 4
2417-301 Math 1 2 4
2417-303 Biostatistics 2 4
2417-304 Basic Science 1 2 4
2417-305 Basic Science 2 2 4
2410-306 Terminology and basic skills 1 2
Total Credit Hours 31

Study Plan for the colleges of Science and Engineering


Study Plan for the colleges of Science and Engineering
Course Num Course Name Credit Hours Contact Hours
2403-401 English 1 5 20
2403-402 English 2 5 20
2403-403 English 3 5 20
2403-404 English 4 5 20
2410-305 Life Skills 1 2
2417-301 Math 1 2 4
2417-302 Math 2 2 4
2417-306 Basic Science non-medical 2 4
2410-306 Terminology and basic skills 1 2
Total Credit Hours 28

Study Plan for colleges of Computer Science and Information Technology and Business Administration


Study Plan for colleges of Computer Science and Information Technology and Business Administration
Course Num Course Name Credit Hours Contact Hours
2403-401 English 1 5 20
2403-402 English 2 5 20
2403-403 English 3 5 20
2403-404 English 4 5 20
2410-305 Life Skills 1 2
2413-301 Information Technology 1 4
2417-301 Math 1 2 4
2417-302 Math 2 2 4
2410-306 Terminology and basic skills 1 2
Total Credit Hours 27

Study plan for the college Veterinary Medicine


Study plan for the college Veterinary Medicine
Course Num Course Name Credit Hours Contact Hours
2403-401 English 1 5 20
2403-402 English 2 5 20
2403-403 English 3 5 20
2403-404 English 4 5 20
2410-305 Life Skills 1 2
2413-301 Information Technology 1 4
2417-303 Biostatistics 2 4
2417-304 Basic Science 1 2 4
2417-305 Basic Science 2 2 4
2410-306 Terminology and basic skills 1 2
Total Credit Hours 29


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