Students sit for their exam in what activists say is the only school in Hama not controlled by the Syrian regime, located in an area controlled by the Free Syrian Army, in Hama countryside, in this May 10, 2014 file photo.

The Saudi government has decided to allocate 3,000 scholarships for Syrian students in various public academic institutions of higher education in the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has directed 23 local universities to accept the above number of Syrian students for the academic year 1436/1437 A.H.

MoE sources said that the scholarships, granted under the directive of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, are renewable if there’s a need and after it has been brought to the attention of the scholarship standing committee.

They said that the “generous and humanitarian gesture of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is in keeping with the Kingdom’s fraternal bond with Syria, which has been wracked by war.”

The MoE sources said that the standing committee has set the objectives of the scholarship program and developed the preparation of acceptance controls, mechanisms and criteria for admission.

It also formulated the benefits granted to the students, determined the budget costs, and distribution of the scholarship grants to the local higher education institutions in the Kingdom.

The program, the sources added, envisions to develop talented Syrian students as scientists, economists and leaders, so that they could be of help to their compatriots and their country later.

Syrians in the Kingdom have expressed gratitude to the “generous and humanitarian gesture of the Kingdom which has not only helped us but also our compatriots who have been displaced by the war.”

“The scholarships mean a lot to many young Syrians whose dreams and ambitions have been dashed by the raging war in our country,” said a Syrian, whose family left Syria because of the war.

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