Gordon Memorial College — From a Small School in 1902 to the University of Khartoum
In 1898, after the establishment of the Condominium rule, Lord Kitchener proposed creating a college in Khartoum in memory of General Charles Gordon, who was killed when Khartoum fell in 1885. A sum of one hundred thousand pounds sterling was collected from donations in just six weeks, and Kitchener officially opened the college on 8 November 1902. It began modestly with three schools: an industrial school, two upper primary schools, and a small centre for training teachers, according to the official website of the University of Khartoum.
The college did not remain at that level. In 1905 the first equipped laboratory for bacteriological analysis was added to it through a donation from Sir Henry Wellcome, and in 1906 it began training assistant engineers, surveyors, and primary school teachers. It then became, in 1924, a complete secondary institution with programmes in Sharia, engineering, education, clerical work, accounting, and science, and in the same year the Kitchener School of Medicine was established, the first medical school in Sudan.
The higher schools followed after that: law in 1936, agriculture and veterinary medicine in 1938, science and engineering in 1939, and arts in 1940. In the mid-1940s the college became affiliated with the University of London under the "special relationship" system, becoming the first institution from outside Britain to enter this system, and its first London degree holders graduated from it in 1950, according to Encyclopedia.com and the university's official record.
In 1951 Gordon College was merged with the Kitchener School of Medicine under the name "University College of Khartoum", with the University of London supervising the examinations and awarding the degrees. After Sudan's independence, Parliament passed a law granting it full university status, so it officially became the "University of Khartoum" on 24 July 1956, thereby severing its affiliation with the University of London.
Through this path, the University of Khartoum became the oldest and largest university in Sudan, and graduated generations of doctors, engineers, judges, and teachers who took over the administration of the institutions of the modern state. Its historic building in the heart of Khartoum, which today houses its main library, remains a physical witness to the beginning of modern higher education in the country.
📚 Sources: The official website of the University of Khartoum (uofk.edu) — University History page; Encyclopedia.com — University of Khartoum entry — Editorial Team
