Campus and city
KFUPM occupies a modern, enclosed campus in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, the heart of the kingdom's oil industry and minutes from Saudi Aramco's headquarters and the Dhahran Techno Valley research park, with the Gulf coast and Khobar's corniche (and the university's SciTech science centre) nearby. Student life centres on a high-calibre, selective peer group and applied activity — the annual KFUPM Student Projects Expo, robotics and entrepreneurship competitions, and global events like the Startup World Cup — within well-equipped labs and facilities. The environment is shaped by Saudi social norms: historically male-only, the campus began admitting women to undergraduate study in 2021 (female engineering intake now reported at 40-50%), and gender-segregated facilities, a conservative social setting and a hot desert climate define daily life, which suits focused STEM students but is more restrictive than open Western or East Asian campuses.