Arab Open University

About

Arab Open University (AOU) (Arabic: الجامعة العربية المفتوحة) is a non-profit university system in the Arab world. Headquartered in Kuwait, the system is composed of 16 campuses across 9 countries: Ardiya in Kuwait, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah, Ḥail, Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabia, Seeb in Oman, A'ali in Bahrain, Amman in Jordan, Al-Bireh in Palestine, Beirut, Antelias, Tripoli in Lebanon, El-Shorouk in Egypt and Khartoum in Sudan. The university has a combined student body of 62,612 students, 61,886 of which are postgraduates while 742 of which are postgraduates, 1031 staff members and 77,037 living alumni. The headquarters of the university is located in Kuwait, designated in 2000. The university has a long-standing academic partnership with the United Kingdom's Open University.

Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud founded the university in December 2000. Kuwait was chosen to be the headquarters for the university. At that same time, 6 branches were established in Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Teaching commenced in early October 2002 in Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon while Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt started in the fall semester of 2002-2003. Subsequent branches were established afterwards. A branch was opened in Oman in September 2007, in Sudan in September 2013, and in Palestine in 2017. The university also intends to open branches in Yemen, Syria and Mauritania.

AOU offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in fields including business administration, information technology and computing, English language and literature, graphic and multimedia design, media, education and law. The university follows an open-learning model intended to widen access to higher education for learners across the Arab world. Through its partnership with the Open University in the United Kingdom, AOU collaborates on higher-education programs taught in English.

The university operates under the chairmanship of Abdulaziz bin Talal Al Saud and the presidency of Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Zakri.

List of universities in Kuwait List of universities and colleges in Saudi Arabia List of universities and colleges in Oman List of universities in Bahrain

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.