On Saturday, the Libyan Minister of State for Displaced Affairs and Human Rights, Ahmed Faraj Mahjoub Abu Khuzam, inaugurated the 2021 Book Fair at Sirte University. The Book Fair is organized by the university under the slogan “Sails of Knowledge”.
31 publishers, including universities, publishing and printing houses, the Ministry of Culture and the General Culture Council, will participate in the exhibition, with more than ten thousand titles.
The opening ceremony of the Book Fair, which lasts a week, was attended by the President of Sirte University, Dr. Suleiman Al-Shater, Vice Rector for Scientific Affairs and General Secretary at the university, a number of deans of faculties and faculty members, a number of Sirte office managers, representatives of publishing houses and intellectuals.
The Minister, accompanied by some officials, toured the Book Fair pavilions, expressing his happiness “with this achievement, which is added to the Sirte University and aims to achieve a number of points, which would increase the wheel of scientific progress within the university and within the city of Sirte.”
Notably, Sirte University was founded as a branch of the University of Garyounis (now known as the University of Benghazi) in the year 1989. In 1992, it became an autonomous institution and was then known as Al-Tahaddi University but was later re-named as Sirte University in 2010.
Since it gained its autonomous status, the university has been continuously expanding and has become one of well-recognised higher education institutions in Libya. Starting off with a few schools and academic departments, the university has at present 15 different schools on and off-campus in different cities and towns such as Al- Jufra, Bin-Jawad and Zamzam and with a total number of students of 11049.
The university currently employs about 407 full-time teaching staff and 101 are contractual foreign employees from Arab and non-Arab countries. The university also employs 1009 non-academic staff in different departments and offices across the university.