## 1 Introduction
This garnered sophisticated financial modeling techniques that connected enrollment and retention rates with institutions' revenues. In the late 1980s, its scope grew to include institutional operations, and the new term of strategic enrollment management was coined [2; 3; 4]. The authorities responsible for higher education in a country raise this very issue of higher education institutions' admission capacity and prepare them to cope with the challenge. Traditionally, authorities have tackled the issue in their respective countries by designing separate plans for each higher education institution individually [2; 3; 4]. For the purpose of this research, the authors choose King Abdulaziz University (KAU) of Saudi Arabia as a case study as it is one of the leading and developing universities in the Middle East; it is the 1 st in Times Higher Education Ranking [5]. According to a UNESCO report in 2019, there is an increasing rate of admission and enrollment each year in the Saudi education system [6]. The report showed the youth literacy rate for the population aged between 15 and 24 years old, both sexes, is 99%, which indicates a high demand for education. A total of 17% of students are enrolled in tertiary education. The Saudi government expenditure on education as a percentage of total government expenditure is almost 15.0%, which also indicates that high priority is given to the education system in the country. Universities are not immune from such challenges. For instance, King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Saudi Arabia is also undergoing a unique set of challenges; according to the QS Top Universities, KAU is a massive leading public university classified as a very high research output university that is ranked 109 th worldwide and 1 st in the Arab region [7]. Challenges, however, come as a result of the economic transition of the country to a non-oil-based economy. In July 2020, the Saudi Minister of Education issued a decree selecting three universities that will be subject to the new system of universities for the gradual implementation and the follow-up of its regulations and provisions on a trial basis in those universities, including King Abdulaziz University [8]. The project of the new system has many goals that it was set to achieve. The chief aims of these goals are to improve the productivity of education in a distinct way, serve the community and be in line with the requirements of the labor market and the needs of the country. The system consists of 14 chapters and includes 58 articles to consolidate education based on technology and independence by providing financial support resources from within the university to spend on its projects and approving its internal regulations in a manner that does not conflict with the constants of higher education in the Kingdom and the values of Saudi society. These goals require a dynamic response through the KAU's knowledge of its capability and capacity to respond to all new variables, and this is one of this study's aims [9]. Thus, several newly imposed regulations and legislation have pushed such government-funded institutions to be financially independent and more agile, creating a positive socioeconomic impact, leading entrepreneur and innovation, and maintaining a high-quality undergraduate and graduate education offering. In theory, the objective of this research study was to put forward a capacity planning admission/decision support system (DSS)-based framework for student enrollment and admission for universities. The case of KAU was presented in terms of its current practice and challenges. In order to achieve these objectives, this research went through several stages, as shown in Figure 1.