Brief history of the Branch
The chairman of the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND), HRH Prince Talal Bin Abel Aziz, in 1996 began the first steps towards establishing the Arab Open University by adopting and promoting the project as a pan-Arab project. Soon afterwards, a Working Group was established under the chairmanship of HRH Prince Talal to create a development plan; and thereafter, a leading international consulting firm (Arthur Andersen) was contracted to produce a comprehensive Feasibility Study.
Subsequently the concept of an Arab Open University (AOU) was formally presented to a UNESCO regional conference in Beirut, March 1998, and at a UNESCO international conference in Paris, October 1998. Five Arab states - Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon - offered to host the AOU Headquarters. The decision was then made in December 2000, for the AOU Headquarters and a Branch to be located in Kuwait. Almost simultaneously, five other Branches were opened in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. A seventh Branch is scheduled to open in the Sultanate of Oman in September 2007. Teaching began in October 2002 and the University will graduate its first 536 students at a ceremony on March 5th 2007.
