UBT History

Timeline of Historic Journey

In 2025, the University of Business and Technology (UBT) is celebrating the 25th year of its founding anniversary. Throughout this journey, UBT has had several developmental changes, which has profoundly impacted its growth trajectory and its role as one the youngest and aspiring private universities in Jeddah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The University traces its origin to the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), established in the year 2000, offering primarily business diplomas for both male and female students. It then grew gradually and progressively to become in 2003 a full-fledged four-year college known as the College of Business Administration (CBA) offering six programs. During the following years, the CBA matured in a planned manner and achieved several milestones including: the introduction of several new programs among which was the MBA program in 2008, the growth in numbers of students, the expansion of its infrastructure and facilities, the establishment of the Continuing Education Centre later re-branded as UBT Executive Education Centre, and the setting up of the English Academy (ELA), now rebranded as UBT Academy in 2010, among other initiatives.

In 2010, the CBA received institutional accreditation from the National Commission for Assessment and Accreditation (NCAAA). Soon after this milestone, the leadership team began the preparatory work towards obtaining the university status as the University of Business and Technology, which was officially announced in 2012 by the Higher Council of the Saudi Higher Education. Along with these achievements, UBT established the College of Engineering by the MOE in 2008, followed by the launch of the College of Advertising- Jeddah (JCA) in 2011 and the College of Law (CL) in 2017. Realizing these milestones, meant that the University has designed and developed a robust portfolio of high-quality programs, supported by distinguished local and international faculty, and state-of-the-art newly launched campus facilities with a full range of student and staff services, located along the Jeddah Corniche. In addition to its existing campuses in Dahban and Jeddah, this new campus houses all four Colleges, in addition to the different supporting deanships, UBT Academy, sports and recreation facilities, the bookstore, and restaurants and coffee shops.

Building on its history of quality and excellence, UBT successfully achieved accreditation by the NCAAA for ten of its programs due for periodic review in 20211. In the same year, the University obtained the E-Learning License as First Private University in Saudi Arabia. In 2022, UBT added to its quality portfolio two majors: Sport Management, which is the first to be offered in the KSA, and Business Analytics and Management Information Systems.

In its desire to build global reputation, UBT increased its research activities to be in the top 300 universities in its Time Higher Education global impact ranking in 2023. Such achievement is made possible due its efforts toward realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Decent work and Economic growth. In 2023, UBT was also ranked 43rd and 51st in the standards of international students and international faculty members in the QS Arab Region Ranking.
UBT has been a member of several well reputable organizations. UBT is today a member of:
● The Association of Arab Universities (AARU)
● The International Association of Universities (IAU)
● The IREG (Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence)
● AACSB, EFMD and AMBA
● The Saudi Arabia Solar Industry Association (SASIA)
● The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Through its relatively brief history, UBT has made remarkable progress, with significant achievements in the areas of teaching and graduate employability. Since its inception, UBT has graduated more than 10000 students holding leading positions in well recognized organizations throughout the kingdom and elsewhere in the world. Its motto “Education for Job Opportunities” is a testament of the University’s ongoing commitment to invest in teaching and learning facilities, ensure that it will continue to serve as a model of innovation and excellence, and graduate work-ready professionals and leaders.

UBT’s growth journey has been continuous, gradual, and visionary, guided by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan. It will, undoubtedly, continue to shape the University’s trajectory for growth and expansion in the next five years.