University of Gezira
The University of Gezira is a Sudanese public university headquartered in the city of Wad Medani, capital of Gezira State, and is considered one of the first Sudanese universities to be established outside the capital, Khartoum. The republican decision establishing it was issued on 9 November 1975, and the Gezira region was chosen as its headquarters because of its agricultural, economic, educational and social weight, and its proximity to the Gezira Scheme, one of the largest irrigated agricultural schemes in Africa. Studies began there in 1978 with four faculties: Agricultural Sciences, Economics and Rural Development, Medicine and Health Sciences, which is now the Faculty of Medicine, and Science and Technology, which is now the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, and the first cohorts of these faculties graduated in 1984.
Since its founding, the university has been based on serving the community and linking education to the requirements of development, studying Sudan's environment, especially the rural environment, identifying its issues and conducting research on them, and qualifying cadres capable of employing the potential of the countryside. It expanded over the decades until its complexes were spread across the city of Wad Medani, including the Al-Nishishiba, Al-Razi and Hantoub complexes, and across the state's localities such as Al-Kamlin, Al-Hasahisa, Al-Managil, Al-Hosh, Al-Hudaiba and Al-Hilalia, and it includes faculties in agriculture, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, applied medical sciences, economics, education, arts and others, alongside specialised institutes such as the Institute of Water Management and Irrigation and the National Cancer Institute, and it awards technical diploma, bachelor's and postgraduate degrees. According to its official website, its students number more than twenty-two thousand at the undergraduate level, and more than nine thousand in postgraduate studies. Its Faculty of Medicine became known for its community-oriented medical education model, and it was chosen in 2021 among the top ten medical schools in the world in the field of social accountability, according to Sudanow magazine. The university is a member of the Association of Arab Universities, the Association of African Universities and the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World.
(Sources: Official website of the University of Gezira uofg.edu.sd — 'About the University' page; Arabic Wikipedia — entry 'University of Gezira'; Sudanow magazine)
— Editorial Team