King Saud University (KSU, Arabic: Jāmiʿa al-Malik Saʿūd) is a public university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulalziz to address the country’s skilled worker shortage, it is the first university in Saudi Arabia. It was known as Riyadh University from 1964 until it was reverted to its inceptive name in 1982. It was converted into an independent non-profit academic institution in 2023.
The student body of KSU today consists of 40,000 students, 7% of which are international. Female students have their own disciplinary panel, and there is a center supervising the progress of female students, either personally by female faculty members or by male faculty members via a closed television network. The university offers courses in the natural sciences, the humanities, and professional studies, and many courses are tuition-free. The medium of instruction in undergraduate programs is English and Arabic depending on the chosen major.
The school’s current main campus was designed by HOK Architects, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Mechanical and Electrical systems were designed by Syska Hennessy Group, Inc. New York City, New York. The facility was constructed in the 1980s by Blount International, a construction firm led by Winton M. Blount headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, after the firm was awarded the world’s then-largest fixed-price contract in history for the sum of approximately $5 billion.
The King Salman Central library is housed in a seven-floor building, with an area of 51,400 square metres (553,000 sq ft) and more than 4,000 seats, has collections of books, periodicals, manuscripts, government publications, academic theses, dissertations, press clippings, audio-visual and electronic media.
In 1982, a dedicated university hospital was opened and was named King Khalid University Hospital. This facility is an 850-bed facility with all general and subspecialty medical services. It contains a special outpatient building, more than 20 operating rooms, and a fully equipped and staffed laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy services in addition to all other supporting services. The hospital provides primary and secondary care services for Saudi patients from Northern Riyadh area. It also provides tertiary care services to all Saudi citizens on referral bases. All care is free of charge for all King Saud University staff and students.
In 1982, Dr. Basil Al Bayati won the 1st prize in the King Saud Competition to build the main mosque, The Palm Mosque (Jama’a Al-Naqheel), for the university. His design incorporated extensively the motif of the palm trunk, as used in the very first Mosque of the Prophet in Medina. It was highly praised and was even claimed to “mark the beginning of a new era, a new revival in Islamic architecture.” The interior calligraphy above the doors and in the mihrab was done by Ghani Alani, the last of the Baghdad School of Calligraphy. He was a student of Hashem al-Khattat. Ghani Alani taught Dr. Bayati whilst at the College of Engineering in Baghdad. The building was also nominated for the 1992 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
As well as designing the mosque, Basil Al Bayati also designed the University Entrance Gates (Faith & Knowledge) to the university which are based upon the theme of faith and knowledge; two pillars of Islam that must be taken together, “Knowledge cannot do without faith nor can faith ignore knowledge for Islam calls always for faith and knowledge to run in parallel.” “The design consists of two books representing knowledge and faith. They have been so placed so that their pages are interlocked thus showing the close connection between faith and knowledge. Verses from the Quran on faith and knowledge are written in script on the cover of each book.”
The university offers a broad range of undergraduate courses in the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities and professional studies. Tuition is completely free and generous scholarships are available for Saudi and international students. The medium of instruction in undergraduate programs is English and Arabic. Applicants are required to pass an Arabic examination if they are from a non-Arabic speaking country. English-language support at all levels is provided by the Languages Unit.
