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Amoud University was officially inaugurated on November 4th, 1998 with the help of the community, consisted at the time of the two faculties of Education, Business Administration and Management. Currently AU has in addition to the above the following four faculties: the Faculty of information technology, Medicine, Agriculture and Environment, Law and Islamic Sharia.
Amoud University also runs diploma programs in the following areas; public and business administration for public and private sector respectively. It has also established a two-year secondary school teacher training diploma course (STTD) supported by UNESCO Peer and other development partners for form four leavers who wish to become qualified Secondary School teachers. Three cohorts of trainees have now graduated from this course and are teaching in the secondary schools of Somaliland and Puntland with the objective to improve participation and quality in secondary education, particularly that of female target groups. Some of the beneficiaries of the program have been the 60 scholarships for Form four leavers and the 20 practicing secondary school teachers at Amoud University. The main goal has been to encourage more able students to take up the teaching profession and to encourage young and unqualified teachers to upgrade their skills and stay in the profession. The program has been successful in the fact that it has had a major impact on schools by producing a new generation of young teachers. Amoud University also offers training program for primary teachers of awdal and Sahel during the winter and summer vacations with the objective of enhancing the quality of the teachers at primary school level. The University has also opened a Distance learning and electronic center where students will follow online postgraduate courses through the African virtual university, AVU, of which Amoud is a partner. The AVU has equipped the center with 30 state-of-the-art computers, satellite dishes and other facilities. Amoud University also continues to grow and develop; recently it has been added to new faculty of law and Sharia and nursing school with degree program. The first lots of undergraduates are studying in these newly added faculties of law and Sharia and the nursing school. It’s a true African success story built on the vision and hard work of a group of scholars backed by the long- term commitment of the local community and the diaspora. like everywhere else in Somalia, higher education is currently faced with great challenges and difficulties related to financing, surging numbers of students in the face of insufficient resources, equity of conditions at access into and during the course of studies, improved staff development, enhancement and preservation of quality in teaching, research and services, and relevance of programs. At the same time, higher education is being challenged by new opportunities relating to technologies that are improving the ways in which knowledge is produced, managed, disseminated, accessed and controlled. Therefore, the revitalization of higher education in the region is a major concern regarding de-facto local accreditation, quality assurance and recognition of qualifications. To respond adequately to these concerns, Amoud University includes its plan; the issues of accreditation, evaluation and quality assurance at national, regional and international levels. There is a general realization in the university to enhance research capacity and of joint research in support of quality assurance and dissemination of research projects. There are a quite number of universities in the region whose capacity in research is in excellence in relevance. Efficient use of their experience in the field will be valuable resource to Amoud University and plans are also underway to receive relevance experience in the field from established universities in the region. By Abdirahman Ibrahim, Other stories on the University of Amoud: Australian Scientist on a Short Visit to Amoud University
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