Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU; ar, جامعة الأميرة نورة بنت عبد الرحمن), formerly Riyadh University for Women, is a public women's university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is the largest

women's university A women's college is an institution of higher education where enrollment is all-female. In the United States, almost all women's colleges are private undergraduate institutions, with many offering coeducational graduate programs. In other countrie ...

in the world. Established in 1970 during the reign of King Faisal bin Abdulalziz, it assumed its current name in 2008 when it was granted university status by

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, عبدالله بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 1 August 1924 – 23 January 2015) was King and Prime Minister of Saudi A ...

and is named after

Noura bint Abdul Rahman Noura bint Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ar, نورة بنت عبد الرحمن آل سعود ''Noura bint ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd''; 1875 – July 1950) was the eldest daughter of Abdul Rahman bin Faisal, Emir of Nejd, and the elder sister a ...

, elder sister and adviser of King Abdulaziz ibn Saud and the eldest daughter of

Abdul Rahman bin Faisal Abdul (also transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul; ar, عبد ال, ) is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word '' Abd'' (, meaning "Servant") and the definite prefix '' al / el'' (, mea ...

, the last emir of the Second Saudi State. The university offers diplomas, bachelor and postgraduate degrees. It has 34 colleges in the city of Riyadh and in the neighbouring cities, an Arabic Language Institute (for non-speakers of Arabic), a Deanship of Community Service and Continuous Education, and a Community College. It has more than 5,000 academic and administrative staff.

History and name

The university was founded in 1970 as the first College of Education for women in the Kingdom. Within the following 25 years, there were 102 similar colleges in 72 cities around the country, accommodating 60,000 students. There were 6 colleges in the city of Riyadh alone, primarily in the fields of education, social service, science, arts, and home economics. In 2004, the decision was made to unify all of the women's colleges in Riyadh, thus creating the first all-female university in the Kingdom. Other colleges around the Kingdom were unified and expanded in their respected regions into independent universities. In 2008, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, عبدالله بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 1 August 1924 – 23 January 2015) was King and Prime Minister of Saudi A ...

inaugurated the campus and changed the university's name to "Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University" after Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman, the sister of the country's first king and leader, King Abdulaziz. ''Nourah'' in Arabic means "light." With this launch was the building of the world's largest and most modern women's institution of higher education in a self-contained higher education city. The first rector was Princess Al Jawhara bint Fahd Al Saud. On 12 June 2011, the new campus was opened in an official ceremony by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

, during which he said:

"Women carry a responsibility that is more than a duty, to maintain the stability of society and contribute to building the economy of the nation, and to represent the community and the nation to the highest standards, outside and inside the country. To be the caring mother, exemplary citizen and productive employee. Outside the nation, to be the ambassador of her country and community, and to represent well her religion, faith and our values."

In February 2017, the university was the host of the first-ever opera in Saudi Arabia. The show, "Antar and Alba", was produced by Opera Lebanon.

Colleges and Departments

Health Colleges * College of Medicine ** Basic Sciences * College of

Dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions o ...

** Preventive Dental Sciences ** Clinical Dental Sciences ** Basic Dental Sciences * College of Nursing * College of

Pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

** Pharmaceutical Sciences ** Clinical Pharmacy * College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences ** Rehabilitation Sciences ** Health Sciences **

Medical Technology Health technology is defined by the World Health Organization as the "application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures, and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of liv ...

** Communication Sciences Science Colleges * College of Business and Administration ** Economics ** Law **

Business Administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

** Accounting * College of Computer and Information Science ** Computer Sciences ** Information Systems ** Networking and Telecommunication Systems * College of Science ** Physics **

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

** Mathematical Sciences ** Biology Humanities Colleges * College of Art and Design ** Interior Design **

Graphic Design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

and

Digital Media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

** Painting and Printmaking ** Fashion Design and Textiles * College of Art ** Arabic Language and Literature ** English Language and Literature ** Geography ** History and Civilization ** Library and Information ** Islamic Studies * College of Education ** Curriculum and Instruction ** Early Childhood ** Special Needs Education ** Psychology * College of Home Economics ** Nutrition & Food Science * College of Social Work * College of Languages and Translation ** English Language and Translation ** French Language and Translation * Community College ** Computer Sciences and Information Technology ** Administrative Sciences The Deanship of Community Service and Continuous Education offers various diploma options. The Arabic Language Institute (for non-speakers of Arabic) offers grant scholarships to non-speakers of Arabic from different countries. The institute has over 350 students from more than 40 countries. In early 2018, the university became the first in the Kingdom to offer a driving school for women, following the allowance of King Salman to grant women the right to drive in the Kingdom. More than 50,000 female students are expected to take part. Despite these advancements Saudi Arabia still has some of the worst rates of unemployment among women in the world Preparatory Year Program (PYP): To ensure quality and a smooth transition into university life, PNU students are required to enroll in a two-year preparatory program of necessary skills, such as: *

Study skills Study skills or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. Study skills are an array of skills which tackle the process of organizing and taking in new information, retaining information, or dealing with assessments. They are discrete ...

* Intensive English program *

Communication skills Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

Computer skills Computer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with skill levels ranging from elementary use to computer programming and advanced problem solving. Computer literacy can also refer ...

Campus services and facilities

Description

The campus was constructed in a record time of two years, supported by 75,000 construction workers and the latest building machinery and methodologies. It is 13 million square meters in size, with a maximum capacity of 60,000 students. The campus has 600 high-tech smart buildings, large-capacity student residencies, various models of faculty residence units, and three spacious, state-of-the-art recreation centers. In addition, it has pre-schools, primary schools, intermediate and secondary schools. It also has an elegant central library, research centers, a university hospital, student support centers, student-accessible sport facilities, a convention center and an automated metro system by

Hitachi Rail Italy Hitachi Rail Italy S.p.A. is a multinational rolling stock manufacturer company based in Pistoia, Italy. Formerly AnsaldoBreda S.p.A., a subsidiary of state-owned Finmeccanica, the company was sold in 2015 to Hitachi#Hitachi Rail, Hitachi Rail o ...

Health and Wellness

Sports Facilities include a number of sports halls (basketball, volleyball, aerobatics, bicycles, etc.) as well as an olympic sized swimming pool. In 2016, the university signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the General Authority for Sports, aiming to increase participation in sports to 40% by 2030.

Sustainable Design

* Water recycling plant * Solar thermal plant * 4000 sq. meters of Solar Panels, which provide 16% of heating and 18% of air-conditioning needs 38 of the university's buildings, totaling a million square meters, have been submitted for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating and the library has applied for the second highest LEED "Gold" rating.

Central Library

The library holds over 2 million books in both Arabic and English with a maximum capacity of 5 million, in addition to numerous journal subscriptions, government publications, dissertations, databases, and

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

."Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University"
Saudi Ministry of Higher Education Portal

Research Centers

Social Research and Women's Studies * Social Science Research. * Women's Studies Research * Human and Social Development Research * Natural Sciences Research Center Aljazeera Chair Academic Societies Established * Saudi Society for Child Care. * Arabic Language Society.

Student Support Centers

* Clubs and Student Councils * Meeting Rooms and Offices * Media and screening rooms * Restaurants and Cafes * Banquet Halls * Bookstore * Pharmacy * Supermarket * Bank

Convention center

* 2 large halls * 2,700 seats (largest in the country) * 1,350 seats * 13 conference and meeting rooms.

Transportation

Due to the physical size of the campus, an efficient means of transporting students needed to be developed. To this end, an 11.5 km automated guideway transit system, the Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University Automated People Mover (PNU-APM), was constructed. The network, built to light metro standards, opened in 2012 and has 4 lines and 14 stations. It has 22 two car

AnsaldoBreda Hitachi Rail Italy S.p.A. is a multinational rolling stock manufacturer company based in Pistoia, Italy. Formerly AnsaldoBreda S.p.A., a subsidiary of state-owned Finmeccanica, the company was sold in 2015 to Hitachi Rail of Japan. After the dea ...

Driverless Metro trains, each having a maximum capacity of up to 110 passengers and a maximum speed of 60 km/h. The driverless technology used in the trains is the same as that of the Copenhagen Metro.

International partnerships

* University of Auckland in New Zealand * University of Southern Denmark in Scandinavia * Valencia College in the United States * Rouen University in France * Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands * Monash University in Australia * Dublin City University in Ireland

Memberships in Regional and International Associations

International Association of Universities The International Association of Universities (IAU) is a membership-led non-governmental organization working in the field of higher education. It comprises more than 600 higher education institutions and organizations in over 130 countries. IAU ...

* Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World * Association of Arab Universities * The Society of Arab Universities * The Scientific Society of Arab Nursing Faculties * Colleges of Computing and Information Society * Association of Social Services * American Council on Education * Association of Colleges of Fine Arts * Scientific Society for Arab Faculties f Medicine * Society of Colleges of Science

References

External links

Official site
in Arabic an
in English

Aerial view and building photos
* Photographs fro
Tridonic.fr

Dedication of the new campus by King Abdullah
(video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University 1970 establishments in Saudi Arabia Universities and colleges established in 1970 Education in Riyadh Universities and colleges in Saudi Arabia Women's universities and colleges in Saudi Arabia