About the University of Sierra Leone

The University of Sierra Leone (USL) a public university in Sierra Leone whose Secretariat is located at A. J. Momoh Street at Tower Hill in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The University is currently made up of three constituent colleges/campuses.

Fourah Bay College (FBC), the first college which specialises in the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Pure and Applied Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, was founded on the 18th of February 1827, by the Church Missionary Society.


In 1967, the College was merged with Njala University College, Moyamba District, to become the University of Sierra Leone, with a federal system. This was replaced in 1972 by a unitary structure which came to include the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), established in 1980 to train civil servants. IPAM subsequently evolved into an institution which trains administrators and managers. It is currently the Business arm of USL. The Third constituent campus is the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) which was established in 1988. It trains doctors, pharmacists, nurses, laboratory scientists and other allied health professionals.

The Universities Act of 2005 disbanded the University of Sierra Leone to exclude Njala University College and it became a university in its own right- Njala University.

Fourah Bay College (FBC), the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), and the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) were left to continue as the University of Sierra Leone.

A new Universities act, The Universities Act 2021 has passed on the roles and responsibilities of the Chancellor from the Office of the Sitting President of the Republic of Sierra Leone to an office where it would be performed by any qualified Sierra Leonean with a proven record of high moral rectitude and integrity, sound educational background and a distinguished career in business, religious or traditional rulership.

It was against the above-mentioned backdrop that Dr. J. Sanpha Koroma on the 30th November, 2021 was installed as the first non-Country President Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone by His Excellency Brig-General (Rtd) Dr. Julius Maada Bio, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the Sierra Leone’s State House in Freetown.