Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al-Othman has been undersecretary for private universities at the Ministry of Education since February.
Before that he was vice rector for educational and academic affairs at the Riyadh-based Dar Al-Uloom University from November 2017.
Al-Othman, who was born in 1959, received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from King Saud University (KSU) in 1983. About three years later, he was awarded a master’s in civil engineering for his thesis on water resources and hydraulics, from the same university.
In 1991, he obtained a Ph.D. in water resources from the department of civil engineering at Birmingham University in the UK.
Al-Othman has been an assistant teacher, lecturer, assistant professor, and associate professor at KSU, where he has also served as the deputy dean, and later dean of admission and registration and the vice rector for the academic and educational affairs. He has also held a number of administrative positions at KSU.
He has also worked as a part-time consultant to the High Commission for the Development of Riyadh. Moreover, he has taken part in evaluating studies and projects for the previous Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, now the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing.
His studies and research include analyzing unconfined pumping test data — a comparative study, 1990; effect of roughness height on the performance of stilling basins, 1999; estimation of evaporation considering weather parameters in Wadi Bishah, 2000; and the implication of a gravity drainage plan on shallow rising groundwater conditions in parts of Riyadh, 2011.