About

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 of Sierra Leone (USL) 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.

CONSTITUENT COLLEGES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE

FOURAH BAY COLLEGE (FBC): Founded on 18th February 1827, the college holds the historic record of being the oldest constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone. It also holds the record for being the first Western-Style University built in Sub-Saharan Africa, from which the first sets of university graduates in Sub-Saharan Africa emerged. This college contributed immensely to Freetown gaining the nickname “the Athens of West Africa”.

The college sits on the beautiful Mount Aureol, a landscape etched in serene greenery affording it a panoramic and picturesque view of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone.

Mount Aureol is 300 meters above sea level with low carbon foot-print making the college ideal for learning and ecotourism.

FBC has since tremendously evolved in terms of curricula and also curricular and structural reforms. In the year 2000, Fourah Bay College in an effort to modernise and standardise its previous system of assessment, the trimester system, introduced the Semester System which gave birth to the modular system within the university structure.

FBC comprises seven faculties: the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Economics & Development Studies, and the Faculty of Communication, Media & Information Studies.

THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT (IPAM): Established on 5th November 1980, offers a range of courses in areas relating to public administration, information technology, financial and business management which helps in making it the formidable business college of the University of Sierra Leone. The strategic location of the college’s main campus at A.J. Momoh Street, Tower Hill, in the central area of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone, makes  its easily accessible to students.

IPAM comprises four faculties: the Faculty of Accounting and Finance, the Faculty of Information Systems & Technology, the Faculty of Business Administration and Entrepreneurship and the Faculty of Leadership and Governance.

IPAM under the University of Sierra Leone Extra Mural Institute/ Community College project, also extensively provides extramural courses in eight provincial towns across the country to help in fulfilling the University of Sierra Leone’s commitment of taking the university to local communities through its community college platform.

THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND ALLIED HEALTH SCIENCES (COMAHS): 

The college which has its main campus at Kossoh Town in Freetown, Sierra Leone has the honour of being the first medical school in Sierra Leone after it was founded on the 12th of April 1988, by the Government of Sierra Leone with support from the Nigerian Government and the World Health Organization.

The College comprises four faculties:   the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, the Faculty of Clinical Sciences & Dentistry, the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

COMAHS has a primary mandate to produce doctors, nurses, pharmacists, biomedical scientists and laboratory technicians with a view of improving the health care delivery system in Sierra Leone. Hence, the College has strategically cemented its position as a leading institution in national health research and capacity strengthening in Sierra Leone by generating the much needed evidence to inform policies and practices in the area of health. The College is also involved in needs-based research activities at both national and international levels to ensure that it continues to play a key role in the health system as well as in rebuilding and strengthening the nation’s socio-economic development at both national and international levels.

The evaluation of the Janssen-Janssen (J&J) and the Merck vaccines against the Ebola virus disease under the leadership of COMAHS in Sierra Leone is one of the noblest contributions of the college in improving the health system especially at the international level. The said vaccines have received emergency authorisation use from the World Health Organization, and were deployed to contain the Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and more recently in Guinea, West Africa.