Umm Al-Qura University
Establishment and Development of the Center
- The English Language Center was established in 1402 A.H. and later became an affiliate of the College of Social Sciences, which was founded in 1404 A.H. The first director of the center was Dr. Sulaiman Ghaith Al-Hashimi Al-Amir. In its foundational stage, the center started with only two lecturers: the Saudi national Mr. Abdul-Aziz Hassan Shalabi and the USA national Mr. Bilal Abdul-Alim Sharif.
- The center started to provide English language courses for the university teaching assistants and lecturers who would be sent abroad to complete their postgraduate studies. At that time, the number of students was only 20.
- In the following year, the center continued providing its courses for the teaching assistants and lecturers in addition to the students of the College of Islamic Architecture, who amounted to 32 students.
- In the academic year 1404–1405 A.H., the center kept providing its services, which expanded to include the students in the different departments of engineering and medical physics.
- In the subsequent year, the center continued its services and started to provide English language courses for the staff of the university's central library and the students of the different scientific departments, including the Departments of Medical Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Biology, and Chemistry.
- As part of its endeavors to serve the community, in the academic year 1411–1412 A.H., evening English language courses began to be provided at different levels by the center for the university staff and the community members.
- In conjunction with the establishment of the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences in the academic year 1417–1418 A.H., the center started to teach the male college students and supervise the teaching of the female students. Such duties of the center have continued till the present time.
- In the academic year 1418–1419 A.H., the center offered a one-year English language course for KSA border guard officers, another course for the staff of Makkah Guest Palace, and a third course for teaching assistants and lecturers.
- In the academic year 1419–1420 A.H., an English language course for the university teaching assistants and lecturers was offered by the center, which was followed by another course in the summer.
- Starting from the academic year 1420–1421 A.H. and continuing till the present, the center has been associated with the College of Community Service and Continuing Education, teaching English language courses for students of different diplomas, such as preparatory secretariat, biology and computing diplomas.
- In the academic year 1421–1422 A.H., a one-year English language course was offered for the technical college teachers in the Saudi Kingdom.
- With the establishment of the Department of Computer Sciences at the College of Applied Sciences in the academic year 1422–1423 A.H., the center started to teach English language courses to the department students.
- In the summer of the academic year 1422–1423 A.H., the center offered a refresher English language course and an intensive English language course (offering two levels) for the new university students.
- With the steady expansion in the center's educational services, the number of the students of the different departments studying in the center in the first semester of the academic year 1422–1423 A.H. exceeded 1000, whereas the number of female students it supervised was 100 female students.
- In the first semester of the academic year 1423–1424 A.H., an English language course was presented for the staff of the Saudi Telecom Company.
- In the academic year 1427–1428 A.H., the College of Applied Medical Sciences was launched including the laboratory medicine and physical therapy programs for males and the laboratory medicine, nutrition and nursing programs for females. In the same year, the College of Pharmacy was launched for both male and female students. After these two colleges had joined the College of Medicine and Surgery, the colleges of health sciences were formed, resulting in the number of male and female students to increase to 13 groups of males instead of eight and 14 groups of females instead of nine.
