King Saud University has received the special attention of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz – May Allah protect him – in terms of endless supportive care and generous funding, a matter that enabled it to achieve many of its objectives and accomplish a large number of strategic projects. One of the most prominent projects is the Female Student Campus, located in the eastern corner of King Saud University in Ad-dirayah, on an area of (1. 232.000) square meters, at a cost of (8.3) billion riyals. The campus consists of (12) colleges: (5) health colleges, (4) humanities colleges, (3) science colleges, in addition to administrative buildings, supporting deanships’ buildings, service buildings, recreational facilities, and a dormitory. The campus, which accommodates (30.000) female students, was officially inaugurated in the beginning of the new academic year 1434-1435 AH, and all the colleges will have transferred to it by the beginning of the second semester, God willing.
The Female Student Campus is one of the biggest and most important projects; it is uniquely well-designed, well-implemented, easily accessed, catering academic and non-academic services. The campus design observes the culture-specific character of Saudi society with regard to the girls’ education environment, and the tools and methods necessary for interactive higher education, serving the university’s aspired pioneering goal of excellence locally and internationally.
The Female Student Campus was designed to be integrative in services and facilities, in line with the latest architectural easy-access foundations. It takes into account the ease-of-access requirements of people with special needs. In order to achieve the technological objectives of the university serving the quality of the educational process, an integrated system of e-learning and distance learning has been the implemented in accordance with the latest specifications and standards ensuring ease of communication among faculty and female students inside and outside the university. The implementation of construction work took into consideration accessibility and non-stop operation of the campus facilities.
In order to achieve the university’s strategic objectives of quality and pioneering, locally and internationally, and to move from traditional education environments into interactive learning setting, integrating female and male sections, the best techniques of distance and e-learning were designed, and adopted, covering all campus buildings including (610) smart classes, (160) distance learning halls, (39) educational amphitheaters (3) event and celebration theaters, a center for celebrations and exhibitions, (235) science laboratories, (160) computer labs, (140) meeting halls, and (14) surveillance management, and control centers. The buildings have been equipped with the most up-to-date smart technologies including 400 digital advertisements monitors, and 100 information kiosks. Buildings were also equipped with smart card services, digital information kiosks, and each college is equipped with special distance control and management rooms hooked up to a central control room.
