Princess Nora (1875-1950) was the older sister of King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia. Flamboyant and astute, she greatly influenced her brother, becoming one of his main advisors.
In 2008, King Abdullah renamed a local university, the Riyadh University of Women, in honour of his famous aunt and the PNU was born. As a lover of language and a pioneering woman of her time, it is fitting that Saudi girls now acquire higher education in this Princess’ name.
This May, PNU opened its expansive new campus near King Khalid International Airport, symbolically positioning it as a portal for the Kingdom. Taking two years and 5 billion USD to build, the behemoth of a university has a student population of over 40,000, making it the largest women’s university in the world. Spread over 800 hectares, its library, which can hold up to 4.5 million books, is just one of over 800 buildings that include housing for students and staff, a day-care centre for children, mosques and recreation facilities. There’s also a 700-bed teaching hospital, research centres for nanotechnology, information technology and bioscience. In fact, there is very little that isn’t there.
The sheer scale is overwhelming. As Chris Cecluse, PNU’s Head Coordinator of Education Experts revealed in an interview, about 12,000 girls enter the Professional Year programme. “On a daily basis,” he explained from his office on the sprawling campus, “there are about 200 English classes taught in the morning and around 200 in the afternoon.”
Perhaps most importantly, PNU will allow women to study subjects to which they normally don’t have access in other Saudi Arabian universities due to gender segregation. Majors will be offered in various disciplines and there are 15 faculties ranging from science and business to physical therapy, languages and humanities. “The king supports and encourages Saudi girls to be citizens of the world,” Cecluse continues. “There are about 6,000 girls ready to launch themselves, which is the most phenomenal resource.”
Beyond the courses themselves, the campus incorporates a number other interesting features. It has 40,000 square metres of solar panelling, which provide part of the electricity needed for heating and cooling as well as its own water recycling plant, which reuses tap water for irrigation purposes.
As women are unable to drive in the Kingdom, PNU is a car-free zone, though electric vehicles are allowed. To facilitate travel around the campus, which extends over a large, sometimes dusty tract of land, PNU has built the world's largest Automated People Mover (APM), essentially a driverless train, fourteen kilometres long. For Law student Raghad Al-Yousefi the train may be one of the campus’ most remarkable features. “We’re not only the first academic city for women,” she says, “but also the first campus that has its own metro system.”
WHAT Princess Nora Bint Abdulrahman University
WHERE Riyadh
FACT It’s the largest women-only university in the world
WHY Women make up 58 per cent of KSA’s student body but only 14 per cent of its workforce. Bespoke believes the fantastic opportunities offered at PNU will help change that.
