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The largest public, and only national, university in the Gulf kingdom, the University of Bahrain is chiefly located in Sakhir, a desert district close to Zallaq in the Southern Governate. Bahrain is also known for the remarkable "Tree of Life" and the Grand Prix motor racing circuit.

It was established in 1986 by the merger of Gulf Polytechnic, which dated back to 1968 and the University College of the Arts, Science and Education founded in 1979. While offering a full range of disciplines, its priorities are vocational and economic, with a "mandate to lead the country in terms of human capital development".

Its mission is to "contribute directly to the economic growth and development of Bahrain, supported by leading edge teaching, technology and research with regional impact", with a vision of becoming "a world-class university that is recognised as a learning, research and entrepreneurial institution".

Of approximately 26,000 students in 2016, just under two-thirds were women and around one in 10 from other countries. They were spread across 86 academic programmes organised in 10 colleges ¨C arts, business administration, applied studies, physical education and physiotherapy, the teachers college, law, information technology, science, engineering and health science.

Most research activity is in engineering and science, and the BSpace science repository retains a record of the science output. The existing centres of English, French and American Studies and the Confucius Institute are to be followed by Korean, Turkish, Russian and Indian centres.

In February 2019 the university attracted international attention by the introduction of blockchain-based digital certificates.