JEDDAH: King Abdulaziz University has been shortlisted in two categories for the Times Higher Education Awards Arab World for initiatives on artificial intelligence education and data-driven enrollment planning.
The university was named a finalist in the Teaching and Learning Strategy of the Year and Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year categories.
The awards received more than 400 entries across 10 categories, with 80 submissions from 36 higher education institutions in 13 Arab countries and territories making the final shortlist.
The university’s “AI Education for Non-Specialists: A National Model for Inclusive AI Literacy” initiative was shortlisted in the teaching and learning category.
The initiative provides accredited AI courses for students across different disciplines, including those with no previous programming experience.
Led by Iyad Katib, Fahad Al-Qurashi and Nouf Al-Ghanmi, the project aims to expand practical AI knowledge beyond technical majors and prepare students for a labor market increasingly shaped by emerging technologies.
The university was also shortlisted in the digital innovation category for its University Enrollment Planning Platform, an internal system designed to support admission decisions, capacity planning and workforce forecasting.
The platform replaces fragmented spreadsheets and manual processes with a unified system linking enrollment targets to admission figures, graduation forecasts, institutional capacity and teaching and supervisory resources.
The project team includes Ala’a Omar Kadidos, Fatimah Omar Kamel, Mohammed Reda Kabli, Jamaan Salem Alghamdi, the Data Team at the Deanship of Admission and Registration, and Ali Hassan Sharif.
The platform is intended to help university leaders make faster and more accurate decisions, identify future capacity gaps and improve the allocation of academic resources.
The winners will be announced during the Arab Universities Summit in Morocco in November.
