page_title: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology / Campus / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: KAUST residential street with outdoor sculpture of a camel, 2011 photo
context_page_description: King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is a private research university located in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2009, the university provides research and graduate training programs in English as the official language of instruction.
  KAUST is the first mixed-gender university campus in Saudi Arabia. In 2013, the university was among the 500 fastest growing research and citation records in the world. In the 2016 Nature Index Rising Stars, the university ranked 19th in the world of the fastest rising universities for high quality research output. In 2019 KAUST is ranked 8th fastest rising young universities for their research output since 2015, as measured by fractional count.
  As a measure towards achieving Saudi Vision 2030, the ambitious plan to modernize and diversify Saudi Arabia's economy, KAUST signed a collaboration agreement with Elm, a semi-private digital solutions company, to facilitate research in areas such as smart city technology.
context_section_description: The University's core campus, located on the Red Sea at Thuwal, is sited on more than 36 square kilometres (14 sq mi), encompassing a marine sanctuary, museum, and research facility.
  KAUST is the first mixed-gender university campus in Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities hope the mixed-gender center will help modernize the Kingdom's deeply conservative society. The religious police do not operate on-site. Women are allowed to mix freely with men  and they are not required to wear veils in the coeducational classes.
  KAUST was Saudi Arabia's first LEED certified project and is the world's largest LEED Platinum campus. Designed by international architecture firm Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, it was also chosen by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) as one of the 2010 Top Ten Green Projects. The university library received the 2011 AIA/ALA Library Building Award for accomplishments in library architecture.
caption: Residential street with outdoor sculpture
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