Funding and plans for new University Sine Saloum

The government of Senegal has budgeted FCFA65 billion (US$123 million) to establish the new University Sine Saloum in Kaolack, which will specialise in agrosciences. Higher Education Minister Mary Teuw Niane has also announced that a total of FCFA302 billion will be spent on Senegal’s higher education in the next two years.

University Sine Saloum, due to open in October 2016, would offer “basic courses and practical courses, courses on science and technology, fisheries resources, tourism, biodiversity, sustainable development, the environment, livestock farming, rural hydraulics”, said the minister.

Niane was addressing a meeting held in connection with an international partnership being set up between the new university and Agreenium, a French agronomic and veterinarian research and higher education consortium, reported Agence de Presse Sénégalaise of Dakar.

He said the FCFA65 billion for Sine Saloum would be allocated with FCFA50 billion for administrative facilities, FCFA10 billion for student accommodation, FCFA4 billion for scientific and technical facilities and FCFA1 billion for ‘logistics’, reported Sud Quotidien of Dakar.

Meanwhile, Niane has announced that the government will invest FCFA302 billion in higher education during the next two years.

He was speaking at the École Nationale Supérieure Agricole, or ENSA, of Thiès where he explained the government’s policy on development of the agricultural sector, which he said must play its part as the driving force of the Emerging Senegal plan, reported Le Soleil of Dakar.

He said the country must train “human resources of quality but also quantity, with the necessity for the old institutions with strong traditions, like ENSA, to adapt to changes in a sector that is continuously changing, or simply perish”.

He was pleased that ENSA was working on a strategic development plan for the next five years. This year the school would receive FCFA50 million for facilities, plus FCFA150 million from the consolidated budget for 2015 for construction of five new rooms for practical work, reported Le Soleil.

* This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.