The Federation of Somalia Universities (FESU) and her entire members from Somalia higher education institutions and practitioners are welcoming the imperative membership Somali National University (SNU) and it will be a member of the Federation of African Universities (FAU) and FAMSI respectively due to the FESU grants permission.
The Somali National University was established in 1954 in the Trust Territory of Somalia. It obtained official university status in 1969. The main university grounds were situated about six kilometers from the city center. Here, during the institution’s first thirty years, the main campus was known as Jaamacada Gaheyr (“Gaheyr University”). 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. 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.
In the mid-1970s, the teaching college of Lafoole University, one of SNU’s remote campuses, was made a stand-alone institution (“Lafoole Teacher’s College”). The language of instruction was English. 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.
The Federation of Somalia Universities (FESU), created under the auspices of UN Strategic Joint for Educational Matters Development UNSJEDM) in 2022, is a membership-based organisation serving the national higher education community through: expertise & trends analysis, publications & portals, advisory services, peer-to-peer learning, events as well as doing national, regional, continental and global level advocacy by developing Somalia higher education system after the collapse of the central government since 1990.
For more details feel free to contact us via secretariat@fesu.so
