The College of Arts is one of the first colleges that were established in the University of Bahrain. The late Amir His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa issued in May 24, 1986 the Emiri Decree (No. 12 of 1986) establishing the University of Bahrain by merging the Gulf College of Technology which was established in 1968, with the University College of Science, Arts and Education, which was established in 1978.
Following the founding of the university, four colleges were established: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, College of Business Administration and College of Engineering. In May 1990, the Board of Trustees of the University issued a decision that divided the College of Arts and Science to two separate colleges, and thus the University comprised five colleges: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Education and College of Business Administration. Later, the College of Law, the College of Applied Studies, the College of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, and most recently the Bahrain Teachers College were added to the University.
In its early years and after separation from the College of Science, the College consisted, of three departments: Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and Department of General Studies, until 1999 when it was agreed to restructure the academic departments in the College. The Department of General Studies was changed into the Department of Social Sciences and its Fine Arts part was appended to a new department, i.e. the Department of Information, Tourism and the Arts. The French, German and Japanese languages were transferred to the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures to include them alongside English. About a decade ago the name of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures was changed to the Department of English Language and Literature, with the teaching of other languages in specialized centers under the umbrella of the College. A few years ago, the English Language Center and also the Bahrain Credit Media Center were subsumed under the President’s Office. In the year 2009, the Department of Psychology was attached to the College of Arts. In 2016 it was decided that the all language centers be consolidated under the Center of Languages which is also subsumed under the President’s Office. Currently, the College of Arts includes five departments, namely Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Department of Social Sciences, Department of English Language and Literature, Department of Mass Communication, Tourism and Fine Arts, and Department of Psychology..
