Wandering the largest university for women in the world is such an opportunity that should never be missed.
Although women’s right in Saudi Arabia is limited, it doesn’t mean that they cannot avail of the excellent education that they deserve. The establishment of Princess Nourah University is a breakthrough in women empowerment.
Princess Nourah bint Abdul Rahman University (PNU) formerly known as Riyadh University for Women is a public university in Riyadh.
It has total enrollees of more than 60,000 students. In 2008, King Abdullah inaugurated the campus and changed its name to “Princess Nourah bint Abdul Rahman University”, after Princess Nourah, the sister of the country’s first king and leader, King Abdulaziz. (Wikipedia)
Whenever I go to airport, I always passed by this gigantic establishment. I’m always mesmerized by how big this place is that a train needs to be built inside of it. I’m always hoping that one day I will be given the chance to enter this place and take some pictures.
It was only last week when a friend of mine who works in a semi-private institution told me that they will be having duty on weekends at PNU. I asked her if I can come with her. So the next morning I had to woke up early as their service will pick us up at 5:30 am.
There was an event taking place at the convention center that day. It was a symposium about scientific creativeness where selected students from different schools all over the kingdom showcased their talents. The chosen students will then be sent to the United States to pursue further studies which will be sponsored by the government.
Back to my real agenda…. As they were busy at the convention, I was also busy walking around the place. It was a cloudy day, perfect weather to stroll and take pictures. Because it’s Friday, there were only few cars passing by and most of the facilities were closed including the metro station.
The place was all mine to explore!
PNU is fully equipped with state-of-the-art facilities. Some of its facilities include a 600 hi-tech, smart buildings, hospital, student support centers, convention center, library, mosques, research centers, dormitories, and recreation and sports centers. It has a train system to make it easier to go from one place to another. It’s like a city within a city.The campus was created for a women-only environment although there is very limited area that is Co-Ed.
What’ s really amazing about this 8 million square meter campus was the construction period which only took less than three years to finish.
It was such an extensive place that a day was not enough to see all of it.
Hopefully next time, I can visit the campus on a weekday so that I can ride the train and enter the library and other facilities.
Traveling Min 