Somali National University

[1] 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.

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.

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.

The university's main campus was situated in Mogadishu, where residents were already familiar with the Italian language.

[citation needed] 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 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.