On Wednesday, Libya’s Sirte University and the University of Monastir in Tunisia, signed a bilateral scientific cooperation agreement.
The agreement was signed by Prof. Dr. Suleiman Al-Shater from Sirte University, and Prof. Hadi Saleh Belhaj, from the University of Monastir.
According to a statement published by Sirte University, the terms of the agreement included the exchange of visits by students at the master and doctorate levels. It also included the encouragement of joint supervision of doctoral theses, and the exchange of information, documents, publications, and scientific periodicals between the two universities.
The agreement includes the implementation of joint research projects, the joint organization of scientific seminars, and conferences. It also includes the exchange of scientific publications, educational programs and plans, references and bibliographic sources, and other materials.
Sirte University was founded as a branch of the University of Garyounis (now known as the University of Benghazi) in 1989. In 1992, it became an autonomous institution, and was then known as Al-Tahaddi University, later re-named Sirte University in 2010.
Since it gained its autonomous status, the university has been continuously expanding, and become one of the most prominent higher education institutions in Libya. 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 of 11,049 students.
The university currently employs about 407 full-time teaching staff, with 101 being contractual foreign employees from Arab and non-Arab countries. The university also employs 1,009 non-academic staff in different departments and offices across the university.
The university is also trying to enhance self-learning and research culture among its students by building a new and comprehensive library, with more than 100,000 resource materials.