AI-Enhanced IT Governance and Cybersecurity Auditing in Saudi higher education universities: Policy, risk, educational leadership, and institutional behavior

The growing application of artificial intelligence in the domain of cybersecurity has improved threat detection and response mechanisms simultaneously, and this has also raised concerns about governance, policy, and risk management, especially in the domain of higher education. This paper examines the application of AI-Enhanced IT Governance and Cybersecurity Auditing in Saudi Arabian higher education, focusing on its association with policy clarity and effectiveness, AI-based cybersecurity risk management, and its educational aspects. This paper uses the theories and frameworks of governance and risk management and fills an important gap in existing literature, which has focused on the Western world and its application in the domain of higher education. A mixed-methods approach has been adopted, and this includes the survey method, which has targeted 200 professionals, including IT and cybersecurity experts, administrative staff, and education staff, and has also conducted semi-structured interviews. The quantitative results have been analyzed through the application of descriptive statistics, reliability, and regression analysis, and the qualitative results have also undergone the process of thematic analysis. The results have shown that there is moderate to high application of AI-Enhanced IT Governance and Cybersecurity Auditing in Saudi Arabian higher education.