More than 10,400 scholars who have met the acceptance to the 10th class of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Scholarship Program were announced recently in Saudi Arabia, according to a report.

The group of accepted scholars included 627 Ph D candidates, 1,397 medical fellows, 6,741 master’s degree candidates and 1,726 bachelor’s degree candidates in medical sciences, said the Arab News report.

Medical specialities had the highest rate of accepted students a 37.4 per cent, followed by engineering and computer sciences, finance and economics, basic sciences, digital media, tourism, hospitality and clinical psychology and law, it said.

Upon completion of the procedures, the candidates will be directed to the best and high-ranked 200 universities based on their specialties, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education for Scholarship Affairs Nasser Al-Fawzan, was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Higher Education approved five new universities specialising in fashion, information engineering, and architecture in France, a military college in Turkey and a government university in Germany, while five other universities in the US and Jordan were rejected, he added.