Article 44 of the Saudi Law of Universities

This article regulates the faculty members' advisory council, a channel for involving faculty members in giving their opinion.

The article contains the following elements:

• Formation: "is formed at the university", without the word "may".
• The forming body: by decision of the University Council.
• Chairmanship: the university president or his designee.
• Competences and rules of work: set by the University Council.

Faculty members, according to Article 1, are professors, associate professors and assistant professors, and lecturers and teaching assistants are treated as equivalent to them. The article does not state whether the council includes all of these categories or some of them, nor how its members are chosen or their number; that is set by the University Council.

Note the difference in chairmanship between this council and the students' advisory council regulated by Article 43: the students' council is chaired by one of the university president's deputies, while the faculty members' council is chaired by the university president himself or his designee. The two councils are alike in that the University Council forms them and sets their competences and rules of work.

Describing the council as "advisory" indicates from its name that its role is to give advice.

Article 45 moves to the financial side, providing that each university has an independent annual budget, adopted by decision of the Board of Trustees under the general rules approved by the Universities Affairs Council, after coordination with the relevant bodies.

A faculty member who wishes to take part in this council should refer to the rules set by the University Council.