Somali universities one by one: SNU, Hargeisa, Amoud, Mogadishu, SIMAD, Benadir and Puntland State

At a glance

For how many universities there are and who checks their quality, see Universities in Somalia. This page profiles the main ones, from their own websites and other sources.

Student numbers come from Wikipedia's university pages, which take them from the universities; none were found in an independent count.

Somali National University (SNU)

Founded: 1950, as the Higher Institute of Politics and Administration, during the UN trusteeship. A Higher Institute of Economics, Law and Social Sciences followed in 1956, and a Higher Institute of Law and Economics under the Somali government in 1964. It became the national university in 1969 (SNU, history).

Faculties added (same source): law and economics (1969); agriculture and chemistry (1971); education (1972); medicine, geology, veterinary medicine and engineering (1973); Islamic studies, languages and journalism (1979); political science (1981); technical teacher training (1984).

Closure and reopening: it closed in 1991 and stayed closed for more than two decades. The cabinet approved its reopening on 26 November 2013, and it reopened on 16 August 2014.

Today: five campuses, Shabelle, Gaheyr and KM4 in Mogadishu, plus Abudwak (Galgaduud) and Badhan (Sanaag), with faculties of agriculture, economics, education, engineering, languages, law, medicine, science, sharia, social science and veterinary medicine, and a graduate school (SNU).

University of Hargeisa

Founded: 1998; teaching began in 2000 with two faculties. It is a public university and describes itself as Somaliland's only chartered university (University of Hargeisa). Fawzia Yusuf H. Adam is named as its founder and first chancellor, from 2000 to 2006 (University of Hargeisa, Wikipedia).

Size: 7 colleges, 16 faculties, 37 undergraduate programmes and 35 postgraduate programmes, on four campuses (University of Hargeisa). Its colleges cover agriculture and veterinary science, business and economics, education, engineering and computing, medicine and health, sharia and law, and social science. It also runs an Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and the Gaariye Institute of Somali Studies (Wikipedia).

Leader: Dr Mohamed Ahmed Sulub is president (same source).

Amoud University

Founded: 1998 in Borama, Awdal, with 66 students, two faculties (education and business administration) and three teachers. By 2020/21 it had 5,111 students (4,599 undergraduate, 512 postgraduate) in 14 faculties and schools, and 238 teaching staff (Amoud University, Wikipedia).

Its first medical graduates finished in June 2007; King's College London supervised their final exams and supports the College of Health Sciences curriculum (same source). Amoud and Mogadishu University are both dated to 1999 in another reference (Education in Somalia, State University reference), so sources differ by a year or two.

Mogadishu University (MU)

Founded: 1997, by its own account (Mogadishu University). It is a non-state university with campuses in Mogadishu and its main address at KM4. Its president is Dr Ibrahim Mohamed Mursal (same source).

Faculties: sharia and law, education and humanities, computer science and IT, economics and management, engineering, medicine, health sciences, political science and public administration, agriculture and environmental science, veterinary science, dentistry and civil aviation. It also runs the Institute for Somali Studies, a legal clinic, a media training centre and Radio Himilo, and publishes the Somali Studies Journal and the Mogadishu University Journal (same source).

SIMAD University

Founded: 6 November 1999 as the Somali Institute of Management and Administration Development; its board of trustees made it a university on 20 January 2011 (SIMAD University, Wikipedia). Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, later President of Somalia, is listed among its founders (same source). The university says it was founded and is sponsored by Direct Aid of Kuwait, and it runs the Dr Sumait Hospital and the SIMAD iLab innovation centre (SIMAD University).

Faculties: management sciences, computing, social sciences, economics, law and education (Wikipedia).

Benadir University (BU)

Founded: October 2002 in Mogadishu as a medical school to train Somali doctors. It reports 13,670 students in 2023, on its Prof. Addow campus and Dr Shahiid campus at KM13. Twenty of its students were among those killed in the bombing of 28 December 2019 in Mogadishu (Benadir University, Wikipedia).

Puntland State University (PSU)

Founded: it began as the Garowe School of Management, a women's school, whose first 60 graduates were women. It then became Puntland Community College, and in 2004, with UNDP and USIU in Nairobi, it became a four-year university. It has campuses in Garoowe, Gaalkacyo and Boosaaso and faculties of business and economics, social science, computer science, health sciences, and sharia and law (Puntland State University, Wikipedia).

How to use them

• Check a certificate: SNU, Mogadishu University and others offer online certificate checks on their websites.
• Check the list: the National Higher Education Commission is reviewing all registered universities; see Universities in Somalia.
• Scholarships: see Scholarships.

Its legal basis

Public universities: SNU is a federal institution, reopened by a cabinet decision of 26 November 2013; the University of Hargeisa and Amoud University are public universities in Somaliland; Puntland State University is a Puntland public university. Private universities register with the federal Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education and, from 2026, are assessed by the National Higher Education Commission (Dawan, August 2026).