Article 13 of the Saudi Law of Universities

This article lists the tasks of the university board of trustees, in accordance with the provisions of the Law and the regulations and rules issued by the Council of University Affairs. They can be grouped as follows:

• Vision and organization: approving the university's vision, mission and objectives, setting its academic, financial and administrative policies, approving the structure and organizational manual, governing the university and making sure its vision is achieved.
• Leadership: nominating the university president, approving the assignment of his deputies, and approving the rules governing the appointment of deans and heads of departments.
• Academic units: recommending approval of the establishment, merger or abolition of colleges, deanships, institutes, centers and departments, or changing their names.
• Finance: approving the implementing rules of the financial and administrative regulations, approving the annual budget, appointing one or more external auditors, approving the final account and submitting it to the Council of University Affairs, and approving the founding of companies or participation in them under the legal procedures.
• Research and services: approving the rules for supporting research, innovation, authorship, translation and publication, and the rules for providing consultancy and academic services to the public and private sectors and civil society institutions.
• Degrees: approving the names of academic degrees, and awarding the honorary doctorate.
• Other: forming the international advisory council, reviewing the annual report and submitting it to the Council of University Affairs, and studying matters referred by its chair or proposed by its members.

The board may delegate some of its powers to its chair or to the other councils in the university, and form permanent or temporary committees.

Note that the board nominates the university president and does not appoint him, and recommends the establishment of colleges and does not decide this itself.

Under Article 12, the board consists of experts in university education, the private sector, the university president and three faculty members. Article 14 regulates its meetings at least once every three months during the academic year with a quorum of two thirds of the members.