Somali National University
 Somali National University  (University)    | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Formation | 1954 |
| Headquarters | Mogadishu, Somalia |
| Somalia's university. Closed during civil war 1990-2014. | |
Somali National University (SNU) is a national university in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Its campus grounds were located four kilometers from the Mogadishu International Airport. From 1954, an Italian-language educational institution was established in the Italian Trust territory of Somalia. After a coup in 1969, the Democratic Republic of Somalia was established and the university was nationalized and officially established as the National University of Somalia in December 1969. Since 1973, the institution was expanded under the military government.[1] The university was able to develop into a center of education in the following 20 years. It closed in 1990, during the collapse of the central government. After closing down for a number of years, the university reopened in August 2014.
History
The Somali National University was established in 1954 as Università Nazionale Somala, under Italian U.N. Trusteeship over Italy's former Italian colony in East Africa of Italian Somaliland. In 1960, Somalia became an independent nation in the Trust Territory of Somalia. It obtained official university status in 1969 and the language initially used was only Italian.[2]
The Somali National University, based in Mogadishu, was born in 1969 as part of a project by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) for technical assistance to Somalia. The aim was to train graduates of Somali nationality, as in every part of the world, for the new leading and technical cadres of the country.The first courses were those of economics and jurisprudence. From '71 to '73, other degree courses were instituted including agrarian, chemistry, medicine, engineering and geology. In 1986 the Somali Ministry of Education and Culture made an official request to the University of Padua (which already ran the degree courses in chemistry and geology) to organize a faculty of sciences that included, in addition to the existing ones degree courses, those in mathematics, physics and biology. Only in 1987 did this new faculty start to operate. Jama [3]
In 1983, nine out of the twelve faculties in the Somali National University used Italian as the language of instruction,[4] but after 1990 only Somali and English were used.
In 1973, under the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC), programs and facilities were expanded. The SNU developed over the next twenty years into an institution of higher learning, with 13 departments, 700 staff and over 15,000 students.[5]
Under the Somali revolutionary government, the Ministry of Higher Learning and Culture established research centers in a number of cities, with the goal of developing regional economies. These learning centers were earmarked for employees from such ministries as the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Livestock and Forestry Management.
Due to extensive damage to its facilities as well as the difficulty of holding classes and acquiring books and other necessities in the wake of the civil war in the early 1990s, classes at the university were suspended.
Relaunch
On 14 November 2013, the former Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon "Saacid" and his cabinet approved a federal government plan to reopen the Somali National University. The refurbishing initiative cost US$55.2 million.[5] On 16 August 2014, the federal government officially re-opened the Somali National University at a meeting of the Board of the University. The event was chaired by former President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who serves as the head of the university's committee in charge of the curriculum, budget dispensation and faculties.[6]
On 18 September 2014, about 480 pupils took the university's entry exams, which were supervised by the Chairman of the Somali National University Dr. Mohamed Ahmed Jimale and the Deputy Minister of Culture and Higher Education Mohamed Ahmed Kulan.[7] The reconstruction and equipment were financed by the Government of Bahrain.[8]
An Alumnus on Wikispooks
| Person | Born | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Abdulqawi Yusuf | 12 September 1948 | Judge |
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150402122612/http://snu.edu.so/en/abouteng/
- ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=b7wMAQAAMAAJ
- ↑ Universita' Nazionale Somala
- ↑ http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1066&context=bildhaan
- ↑ Jump up to: a b http://horseedmedia.net/2013/11/14/cabinet-endorses-plans-reopen-somali-national-university/
- ↑ http://goobjoog.com/english/?p=2609
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20141009034247/http://www.raxanreeb.com/2014/09/somalia-weekly-government-progress-report-touches-numerous-issues
- ↑ http://allafrica.com/stories/201410150311.html
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