Rationale

According to an estimate the expected demand for higher education opportunities with their supply in the period 1427 – 1437 H, there is a gap in the available market of higher education. This gap widens continuously from 76419 students in 1427 H to 18715 in 1437 H. assuming that 25% of students in this gap will go to technical, community, and military colleges, and that another 255 will go to other educational/training institutions, or will opt out from their higher education, the net gap increases to 50%. Thus the net gap starts with 38210 students in 1428H to 90357 students in 1437H. The market gap for the College of Medicine, has been worked out is 50% of the total gap

of 180715 by the year 2016 AD. Similarly the market gap for College of Applied Medical sciences and the College of Nursing for the year 2015 AD have been worked out as 68060, which necessitates and justifies the establishing of Al-Rajhi University. There has been a limited increase in the number of hospitals and health centres in the region. There are 16 hospitals in Al-Qassim Region with a total of 2030 beds:

• King Fahd Specialist Hospital (574 beds)
• King Saud Hospital (360 beds)
• Buraidah Central Hospital (200 beds)
• Buraidah Maternity and Pediatric Hospital (158 beds)
• Bukariah General Hospital (200 beds)
• Al-Rass General hospital (200)

Ten more hospitals are located in different areas (30-80 beds). Furthermore, there are 137 primary care centers distributed all over the Region. The number of private hospitals in 2001 was three with 126 beds. There is a substantial gap between the demand and supply keeping in view the number of patients that visited these hospitals. The number of served patients per bed in the Ministry of Health Hospitals has declined from 14 beds/10,000 population in the year 1420H to 13.5 beds/10,000 population in the year 1421H.

Thus the percentage increase in the number of beds has been lower than the percentage increase in the population. These factors underpin the need for established hospitals in the region to make healthcare accessible to all bridging the gap between demand and supply. We also intend to create a competition between the healthcare delivery facilities to continuously improve the quality and minimize the costs. The proposed teaching hospital will in addition to traditional medical facilities, provide some highly specialized services so that patients have not to be referred to cities like Riyadh. The project is expected to have a major economic impact in terms of preparing the qualified workforce.

The project is likely to have social impact as well to reduce the unemployment rate, raising educational efficiency, and contributing to the social development by providing cost-effective educational opportunities.  There are eight Universities (out of which three are new) in the KSA that have Colleges of medicine granting degrees. There are five universities with colleges of Applied Medical Sciences. There is no College of Nursing presently in KSA. Only a few Nursing Schools with 2 year Diploma courses exist. Hospital The Bed Occupancy rate during the first year is expected to be around 30%. It is expected to increase gradually in the due course of time to reach around 85% by the tenth year of its existence.