





King Saud University (جامعة
الملك سعود) is Saudi Arabia’s oldest university, located in the capital
Riyadh. The university was founded by King Saud in 1957 as Riyadh
University. The first university not dedicated to religious subjects,
it was renamed King Saud University in 1982. It was created to meet
Saudi Arabia’s shortage of skilled workers. Today the school has over
70,000 students including females. he 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 idea of establishing the
first university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came as a natural
response to the educational revival the kingdom enjoyed since its
foundation. With the reign of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the kingdom’s
government sought to propagate education throughout the country. His
efforts were crowned when King Fahd assumed the office of the first
Ministry of Education. Right after the first session of the Council of
Ministers, he gave the following statement: “We will shortly
establish the Saudi University; this is a foregone conclusion. This
university will be one of the most prominent houses of culture and
sciences, and will be worthy of our country where the light of Islamic
faith and civilization has emanated (Wikipedia).
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