Founded in 1975 as the University of Dammam, it became the Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in 2016, during King Salman bin Abdelaziz’s visit to Dammam.
Located in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, it is one of the Eastern Province’s oldest universities and is one of the country’s leading universities for medicine, for both male and female students.
At its conception, it comprised two colleges – medicine and architecture/planning, but has now extended to include applied medical sciences, dentistry, applied studies, community services and nursing.
Its 21 colleges are situated throughout the Eastern Province, with a main campus in the coastal area of Al-Rakah and others in Jubail, Qatif and Rayyan. There are 19 libraries at IAU.
Students are accepted based on the national exam results, then moved into streams based on these grades. In the first year of study, students are in competition for majors, which determine into which college they will be accepted. The medical stream is the most difficult to enter in the university.
The King Fahd University Hospital (KFHU) was set up in 1981 and has become the region’s leading health care and research institution, with a combination of patient care facilities and advanced diagnostic techniques.
Dammam is a major administrative centre for the Saudi oil industry and the population is growing by 12 per cent each year, which is the fastest of anywhere in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and the Arab world. It is accessible by the King Fahd International Airport, which is the largest airport in the world based on its land area.
