University of Bahrain


The University of Bahrain is the largest public university in the Kingdom of Bahrain. It is the only national university in the country. With campuses in Sakhir, Isa Town and Manama, the university has more than 20,000 registered students and over 2000 staff members.
The university is a member of the International Association of Universities and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

History

The University of Bahrain was established in 1986 as a result of Amiri Decree No. 12 /1986. The decree resulted in the merger of two public colleges; the Gulf Polytechnic and the University College of Arts, Science and Education.

Campus

The university has three campuses. Its main campus in Sakhir covers an area of 103657m2 and houses all the colleges except the Colleges of Health Science and Engineering. The College of Health Sciences is based in a campus next to the Salmaniya Medical Complex. The College of Engineering is based in a campus alongside the Bahrain Polytechnic.
The university owns a total of 66 buildings, 240 classrooms, 183 labs, and three gymnasiums. The university has four libraries, with the Central Library having an estimated 250,000 books in stock. The library also has access to the British Library database.

Colleges

The University of Bahrain receives US$110 million as a budget from the Bahraini government. The university itself consists of 10 constituent colleges:
Aside from colleges; the university includes other buildings around the main Sakhir campus for different purposes:
The university offers more than 102 academic programs, including 42 Bachelor programs, 39 Master's degrees, 10 PhDs and 11 associate diplomas. Credit hours vary between courses and degree level.
The university admits 15,000 students per annum, 80% of whom start in September.
The university's admission criteria generally require a high school score of 70%, in addition to other criteria imposed by some colleges.

Research

Since 1986, more than 5,000 research papers and books were published by academics in the university, 80% of which was produced by the Colleges of Science and Engineering respectively. The university allocates US$11 million annually towards research and supports 38 full-time research personnel. More than 500 Masters thesis was published since the university's inception.

Reputation

The university consistently ranks as the first nationally, 23rd amongst Arab universities and 801-1000 internationally according to QS World University Rankings as of 2020.

Student life

The university has 30,317 registered students at the start of the 2014/15 academic year, more than 65% of whom are female. 10.5% of the student population are international students. There were an estimated 700 events and activities in the 2012–13 academic year.
The university has a student council elected annually, with each constituent college electing a representative.

Notable alumni