For the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history, men attending a university north of Jeddah will have special classmates – women.

Saudi Arabia’s new university to let women unveil and study with men

The King Abdullah Science and Technology University opened Wednesday is meant to break ground on Saudi Arabia’s scientific learning and gender norms.

For the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history, men attending a university north of Jeddah will have special classmates – women.

The conservative country unveiled on Wednesday its first ever fully coed university, the King Abdullah Science and Technology University (KAUST). In the past, women in the notoriously gender restrictive kingdom were only allowed to take classes separately from men.

The inauguration of KAUST is meant to signal two important developments: a lauded, if politically volatile, softening of hard-line rules, and the kingdom’s rising ambitions of being a hub of scientific learning. Both aims, Saudi Arabia’s rulers hope, will help blunt the impact of extremism.

The university’s lavish inauguration on Wednesday met with glowing praise, according to this description from Arabnews.com: