Universities and colleges
University of Burao (Jaamacadda Burco)
The University of Burao is a community-founded university in Burco, Togdheer, that registered its first students in September 2004. It has more than 10 faculties, from veterinary medicine and agriculture to medicine, engineering and Sharia, and branches in Sheekh, Caynabo and Oodweyne. Six classes had graduated by 2016.
In short
The University of Burao (UB) is an independent, community-based university in Burco (Burao), the main city of Togdheer region in Somaliland (Wikipedia). It was set up in 2004, and its first students registered in September 2004 (same source).
How it started and grew
At the start there were 167 students in four colleges, plus 430 primary teachers on a short course to upgrade their skills (Wikipedia). Six classes had graduated by 2016 (same source). In 2016 the university joined the Association of Arab Universities (same source).
It has branches outside Burco in Sheekh, Caynabo (Aynabo) and Oodweyne (same source).
Who runs it
A board of trustees answers to the Togdheer Development Committee (Wikipedia). A president, accountable to the board, runs the university day to day (same source).
Campus
The main campus is in the Shacab suburb in north-west Burco, about 2 km from the city centre, on a fenced site of about 3.75 hectares (Wikipedia). It has lecture halls, ICT, science, engineering and veterinary labs, a library, a printing press, a guest house, a sports ground and a mosque (same source).
Faculties
The university lists these faculties and units (Wikipedia):
- Animal Science and Agriculture
- Education
- Business Administration, Public Management and Economics
- Information and Communication Technology
- Medicine and Health Sciences
- Languages
- Sharia and Law
- Community Development
- Engineering
- School of Rural Development and Somali Studies
- Department of Research, Training and Short Courses
Veterinary students ran a biogas project, and ICT students did web development research (same source).
Why it opened these faculties, in its own words
The university's case for its faculties, as given on Wikipedia, used these figures (Wikipedia):
- Livestock: official 1997 figures put the herd at about 23.5 million head, with only about three dozen qualified vets in the country.
- Teachers: the Ministry of Education counted 106,480 school pupils in 2003/04 and 2,590 teachers, of whom only 241 had degrees. That is one teacher per 41 pupils and one graduate teacher per 442.
- Teacher training: the only teacher college, Lafoole, had been closed for 13 years because of the civil war.
Read more
Sources
- Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
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