Established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulalziz to address the country's skilled worker shortage, it is the first university in Saudi Arabia.

[9] The medium of instruction in undergraduate programs is English and Arabic depending on the chosen major.

Establishing Saudi Arabia's first university was a response to the educational and professional needs of a young nation.

In 1953 King Saud, the eldest son of Abdulaziz, acceded to the throne upon his father's death, and instituted the Council of Ministers and the Ministry Education.

Following the first session of the Council of Ministers, he announced that the first Saudi university would be established as a house of culture and sciences.

17, Prince Fahd announced the founding of King Saud University, established to "Disseminate and promote knowledge in Our Kingdom for widening the base of scientific and literary study, and for keeping abreast with other nations in the arts and sciences and for contributing with them discovery and invention, in addition to reviving Islamic civilization and articulate its benefits and glories, along with its ambitions to nurture the young virtuously and to guarantee their healthy minds and ethics."

112 of 1961 recognized that King Saud University was an independent legal entity, with a budget of its own, responsible for higher education, promoting scholarly research, and advancement of sciences and arts in the country.

Of the main landmarks of the new statute is the creation of the Higher Council of the university as one of its administrative powers.

The membership of the new council includes two active or inactive university presidents, two faculty members who had assumed such positions outside the country, or two native leading intellectuals.

Again, the statute dictates the creation of an Academic Council overlooking scholarly research and studies.

These decrees were issued in response to the growing and widening needs of the university as the establishment of new colleges started.

In 1980 another branch of the university opened at Qassim with three colleges: Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, and Economics and Administration.

[13] The following individuals have served as the rectors of the university since its inception:[21] The school's current main campus was designed by HOK Architects, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

The facility was constructed in the 1980s by Blount International, a construction firm led by Winton M. Blount headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, after the firm was awarded the world's then-largest fixed-price contract in history for the sum of approximately $5 billion.

[13] The King Salman Central library is housed in a seven-floor building, with an area of 51,400 square metres (553,000 sq ft) and more than 4,000 seats, has collections of books, periodicals, manuscripts, government publications, academic theses, dissertations, press clippings, audio-visual and electronic media.

The hospital provides primary and secondary care services for Saudi patients from Northern Riyadh area.

Basil Al Bayati won the 1st prize in the King Saud Competition to build the main mosque for the university.

His design incorporated extensively the motif of the palm trunk, as used in the very first Mosque of the Prophet in Medina.

It was highly praised and was even claimed to "mark the beginning of a new era, a new revival in Islamic architecture.

The Faculty members have grown from 4 to 210 (including lecturers and teaching assistants) in the same time span.

There are five academic departments: Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacognosy and Clinical Pharmacy.

Badran Al-Omar, the University Rector, stated that paramedics were allowed in the premises on arrival, and the patient received the best of care but could not be revived.