Constructing the Transforming University: Governance, Leadership, Academic Culture, and Quality Assurance in the Institutional Discourse of Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University

Abstract

Saudi higher education is being reshaped by a policy environment that simultaneously expands institutional responsibility and intensifies evaluation, accreditation, performance monitoring, and alignment with national development priorities. This article examines how Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University (PSAU) discursively constructs that changing institutional order. It integrates a substantial body of Saudi scholarship on governance, leadership, quality assurance, academic accreditation, human capital, and institutional performance with a qualitative institutional discourse analysis of publicly available PSAU documents issued or maintained between 2019 and 2026. The corpus comprises the University’s strategic, identity, governance, quality, accreditation, academic-programme, and Vision 2030 texts. The analysis identifies five interconnected constructions. First, autonomy is represented as governed discretion exercised within national frameworks, authorised procedures, and measurable objectives. Second, leadership is presented as participatory and capacity-building, yet remains embedded in formally hierarchical approval structures. Third, academic culture is constituted through the recurring values of quality, mastery, transparency, teamwork, innovation, responsibility, and continuous improvement. Fourth, accreditation is transformed from an external inspection event into an internal architecture of evidence, review, benchmarking, and programme redesign. Fifth, institutional transformation is legitimised through alignment with Saudi Vision 2030, labour-market relevance, digitalisation, research impact, sustainability, and community partnership. These constructions are productive but not tension-free: participation coexists with central authorisation, innovation with standardisation, and improvement with compliance. The article contributes a discourse-centred account of Saudi university transformation and proposes practical safeguards for ensuring that governance and quality systems develop institutional learning rather than merely expanding documentary workload.