The Role of Academic Accreditation in Improving the Quality of Services and Student Activities in Academic Programmes at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University: Case Study

Academic accreditation is one of the most important priorities for higher education institutions. Therefore, universities seek to intensify efforts for funding from external parties to ensure the quality of their institutions and programmes. This study aimed to determine the quality of student services and activities in Prince Sattam University’s accredited and unaccredited programmes from the students’ perspective. It also looks at how different the answers of the study sample members are regarding the role of academic accreditation in improving the quality of student services and activities based on the study variable for accredited and unaccredited academic programmes. The descriptive survey method and a questionnaire tool were used on a study sample of 804 students from various disciplines in colleges based on the status of accreditation of their programmes. The results showed that students are satisfied with the quality of student services and activities in academic programmes. Moreover, there are differences in the averages of students’ responses based on the programme’s status (accredited/unaccredited), favouring accredited programmes. This study recommends that academic accreditation be used to improve the quality assurance of student services and activities in academic programmes to increase student satisfaction, support the continuity of their education, and improve their learning outcomes.