In 1402 A.H. (1981), the College of Engineering and Islamic Architecture was established as part of the College of Applied and Engineering Sciences. It was also the first department in the group of engineering departments that formed the present form of the college.

After that, the other three departments were opened, starting with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and then Civil Engineering, Later, the three were completed with the establishment of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The four departments became the nucleus of the College of Engineering and Islamic Architecture, which the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques ordered to be established in 1409 A.H. (1988) to start a new phase of academic contributions under an independent entity.

As part of the general trend of separating specializations and taking into account the needs of the labor market in the college’s outputs, the Royal Approval was obtained to separate the specialization of Computer Engineering from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. It became the Department of Computer Engineering as of 1421 A.H. (2000).

The beginning of the academic year 1425/1426 A.H. (2004/2005) witnessed the implementation of the first preparatory year program for students of the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. As of the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 1426/1427 A.H. (2005/2006), the College of Computer and Information Systems was established, and the Department of Computer Engineering was transferred to the new college.

As part of the ongoing development of the college and its programs, the preparatory year was stopped and the college’s programs were updated, including a first year shared between the engineering programs. The Mechatronics Engineering Program was also created and made available in the Mechanical Engineering Department in 1444 AH (2023). The college's Department of Industrial Engineering has also been approved. The name of the college was also updated to become “College of Engineering and Architecture,” after updating the name of “Department of Islamic Architecture” to “Department of Architecture.”

In the academic year 1431/1432 A.H. (2010), the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering obtained the American international academic accreditation (ABET), and in the academic year 1433/1434 A.H. (2012) the Department of Civil Engineering also obtained the ABET accreditation. The accreditation of these departments was renewed in the academic year 1439/1440 A.H. (2018) Moreover, the Department of Islamic Architecture obtained the German international academic accreditation (ASIIN) in the academic year 1438/1439 A.H. (2017).

Umm Al-Qura University

عن College of Engineering and Architecture