The Saudi government is making significant efforts to update laws and regulations related to education to keep pace with the rapid changes in today's world. One of the most critical recent laws related to the higher education sector in the country is the replacement of the law of the Higher Education and Universities Council System (HEUC)issued in 1993 with the Law of Universities (LU) of 2019. The current comparative study aimed to define the essential similarities and differences between the two laws when related to public universities in Saudi Arabia. One of the most notable similarities between the HEUC and LU is that the government still has significant influence within the Universities Affairs Council, which is responsible for supervising universities. Likewise, the government has a significant impact on public universities where the government appoints leaders of trustees, university presidents, and some leadership positions in universities. On the other hand, there are meaningful dissimilarities in legal articles between the HEUC and the LU, notably the difference in organizational and administrative structures within public universities. The LU also provided more freedom to government universities to diversify sources of income and financial independence from the government money.