Saudi Arabia opens university for 50,000 women

 Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has inaugurated a state-of-the-art university for women, claimed to be the world?s largest with a capacity to enroll 50,000 students. Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University (PNU), 25 km east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, has been built at a cost of USD 5.3 billion (20 billion Saudi riyals) and is part of an ambitious education plan of the Saudi government. Authorities said the university?s residential area has about 1,400 villas and hostel facilities to accommodate 12,000 students, a sports city for girls and major facilities complying with environmental guidelines. The new campus also includes a 700-bed university hospital, 15 colleges, a conference hall, laboratories and three research centers for nanotechnology, information technology and bioscience. The university has a research centre and a library with about five million books and journals.