About the University
Sana’a University: A Brief Progress Report
Sana’a University, one of Yemen’s premier and leading public universities, is renowned for its excellence in higher education across the Republic of Yemen, boasting a prestigious historical and academic reputation. It was established in the academic year 1970-1971 by the Republican Decree No. (42) issued on 16/06/1970. As the first university in Yemen, it aimed to attract and accommodate the bulk of general education graduates. It sought to prepare graduates who are well-qualified academically and well-equipped with exceptional professional training across a wide range of disciplines, enabling them to contribute to the progress of Yemeni society and the implementation of development plans. Over the years, various laws and regulations have been enacted to regulate the University’s administrative and academic tasks, including the Republican Decree with Law No. (17) of 1995 concerning Yemeni universities, Law No. (43) of 2005 regarding employment, salaries, and wages, and the Republican Decree No. (32) of 2007, pertaining to the executive regulations of the Yemeni Universities Law.
Sana’a University is considered the foundational institution for both public and private universities in Yemen. It comprises 19 faculties, 23 specialized research centers, and more than 400 academic programs. The University strives diligently to uphold its role and status among higher education institutions, despite facing various internal and external challenges. These challenges stem from global shifts, including the recent knowledge explosion, rapid scientific progress, technological advancements, and the information and telecommunication revolution. On the other hand, the University faces other pressing internal challenges including the need to align with the diverse skills and specializations required by the labor market. Meanwhile, the University needs to ensure constant enhancement and elevation of the quality of its educational output, despite the extraordinary circumstances that Yemen experiences today. The University is committed to fulfilling its role in comprehensive national development. To ensure this, efforts have been unified to develop a strategic plan, grounded in scientific principles and directions, and informed by national strategic objectives as well as the experiences of other regional Arab universities. This requires careful strategic planning and development, supported by numerous scientific initiatives and practical efforts, allowing the University to address these challenges with high flexibility and overcome them to achieve its goals for a better future. This commitment is evident in the University’s remarkable progress on the annual global ranking, advancing over 2000 positions on the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities within five years.
Sana’a University has demonstrated an unfailing commitment to achieving comprehensive integration across all academic and educational disciplines within the University, improving institutional, administrative, and academic performance, and raising the quality of educational outcomes. Besides, the University plays a vital role in advancing scientific research and serving the community. To this end, Sana’a University has developed a strategic plan that reflects the overarching goals of development and meets the aspirations of the community that benefits from the University’s outputs.
The University is also committed to enhancing the quality of its administrative and academic standards, as well as elevating the research and academic skills of its faculty members. At the same time, the University’s strategic plan emphasizes the need to develop the capabilities and skills of the university’s students in line with the needs of the labor market and the demands of the modern era. Furthermore, the strategic plan also demonstrates the University’s commitment to achieving leadership, creativity, and excellence in the research field, with a view to making the University a beacon for research among Yemeni universities and a catalyst for development in Yemen. Moreover, the University strives to provide a diverse range of services to the community, based on its needs and requirements.
Since mid-2019, the University has evolved into a collaborative workshop, buzzing with activity and dedication, much like a beehive. It has focused intensely on defining and preparing specifications of academic programs and study courses, as well as conducting self-evaluations of its academic programs. A clear and strategic plan was crafted to guide these efforts, led by the University’s leadership and overseen by the Academic Development and Quality Assurance Center. The primary emphasis has been on program and course specifications as well as self-evaluation, laying the groundwork for achieving national and regional institutional accreditation.
By the end of 2019, the University successfully completed training workshops for specification across all its faculties and began the process of preparing both program and course specifications. The year 2020 was marked as the year of excellence in conducting specifications of academic programs and study courses, with 200 academic programs and over 7,000 study courses described across 19 faculties. With the start of 2021, a detailed and comprehensive plan was developed to carry out a self-evaluation of academic programs across various University faculties. Evaluation training workshops were held in all faculties, and the self-evaluation process for academic programs began, making 2021 a standout year for self-evaluation. The self-evaluation of all academic programs in all faculties was completed. Then, the University made significant efforts to prepare the specifications of over 250 postgraduate programs (MA and Ph.D.).
Additionally, more than 10 new Bachelor’s programs were introduced. The results of these efforts in the process of program and course specification as well as self-evaluation were seen in the University’s application for obtaining international accreditation for the medical program in Prosthetics and Orthotics, as well as national academic accreditation for its programs in Medicine, Surgery, and Dentistry, for which the University successfully achieved national accreditation with a Gold Standard.
The University remains committed to pursuing excellence. With diligent efforts, it works to secure institutional accreditation for ten faculties and programmatic accreditation for four more within the coming two months. Meanwhile, the University prepares well to apply for international accreditation for several programs, starting with medicine, engineering, and computing programs.
Despite the substantial achievements in the process of program and course specification, self-evaluation, and accreditation, the University remains dedicated to fostering a culture of quality by conducting hundreds of workshops regularly to benefit all academic and administrative staff. The Academic Development and Quality Assurance Center has played a key role in the success of these efforts, spreading a culture of quality by publishing over 83 quality assurance-related publications.
Moreover, the University’s academic staff has enhanced the University’s academic excellence by uploading more than 11,000 research papers to Google Scholar, with dozens more being added annually to the Scopus platform. Recently, the University has also organized over 5000 training and capacity-building courses to enhance the skills of both academic and administrative staff. These courses also cover a range of topics, including course reporting, course file management, and more. The University’s website, along with those of its faculties and research centers, is continuously updated to reflect these ongoing developments.
University vision
To excel in providing high-quality education, pioneering scientific research, and impactful community service.
University Mission
Sana’a University is dedicated to delivering high-quality education, promoting scientific research, contributing to community development by producing highly qualified graduates according to international quality standards, addressing the labor market needs, and striving for excellence and competitiveness locally and regionally.
Strategic goals
- Enhancing the University’s academic and administrative performance to support the educational process.
- Elevating the quality of the educational process.
- Developing a robust framework for scientific research.
- Providing opportunities for innovation and creativity that contribute to sustainable development.
- Strengthening the University’s partnerships with the community.
Overall Goals
Sana’a University seeks to achieve the following objectives:
- To provide specialized and in-depth academic opportunities for students in different fields of knowledge to meet the country’s needs of specialists, technicians and experts, with a special focus on:
- boosting the level and quality of education and qualification tasks.
- Creating a general culture aiming at developing the elements of sound Islamic personality and the proper cognitive and scientific training.
- Stabilizing the true Islamic vision emanating from the broad horizons of Islamic knowledge and its perception of the universe, man and life.
- Developing innovative and critical scientific thinking skills.
- Providing students with the required knowledge as well as scientific and practical skills for solving problems effectively and efficiently.
- Enabling students to carry out, implement and assess scientific research methods.
- Developing positive talents and skills towards working in general with special focus on promoting the spirit of cooperation, collective action, effective leadership, sense of responsibility and ethical commitment.
- Developing positive attitudes towards science and technology, their rapid developments and how to utilize them for developing and solving problems of the Yemeni environment and society.
- Developing the students’ positive attitude towards the concept of self-learning and lifelong learning.
- To cherish Arabic language, its teaching and development; and mainstream its use as the language of science and education in various arenas of knowledge, as a vehicle for cultural meanings, values and ethics of the Arab-Islamic civilization.
- To develop knowledge through engaging in multidisciplinary research, both individually and collectively, and directing them towards serving the community needs and development plans.
- To nurture the development of technology and its utilization in the community development.
- To promote the activities of authorship, translation and publishing in various fields of knowledge with special emphasis on the Yemeni heritage.
- To contribute to the promotion of arts, literature and the advancement of sciences.
- To offer an academic atmosphere conducive to the freedom of thought, expression and publication in a way that does not contradict with the lofty values and elevated ideals of Islam.
- To strengthen relations with universities and public and private institutions in the country to ensure a mutual and constructive interaction of knowledge, expertise, resources and participation that will guarantee effective contribution to the comprehensive development of the country.
- To strengthen scientific and cultural ties with Arab and foreign universities, scientific bodies, and research and development centers, with a view to developing Sana’a University and enhancing its prominence.
- To offer technical and specialized studies and consultations for various public and mixed-sector institutions.
- To contribute to the development of policies and ways of work in institutions of both public and private sectors, providing models and innovative experiments to solve various problems.
- To promote the efficiency of employees in public and private institutions and agencies, by contributing to the development of in-service preparation and qualification programs.
University Core Values
Excellence
Partnership
Emphasizing on community partnership, national and international cooperation relations, and flexibility and response to the needs of beneficiaries.
Transparency
Maintaining a transparent and open approach in dealing with all beneficiaries on the basis of a clearly identified assessment and accountability mechanism.
Teamwork
Working in a team spirit, joining efforts, improving communication and dialogue techniques, and participating in shouldering responsibility and exchanging expertise.
Strategic goals
The Strategic Goals of Sana'a University
The First Goal: Achieving national leadership in standard-based for development needs.
Objectives:
– Providing a university learning environment that stimulates critical and creative thinking.
– Offering accredited academic programs that meet quality standards and the needs of comprehensive development
– Developing and diversifying educational and learning opportunities and sources.
– Enriching university life with activities and events that encourage participation and constructive interaction.
– Working for a gradual transition from teaching to learning.
The Second Goal: Achieving efficiency and adequacy in the university's human, financial and material resources. Objectives:
– Developing, diversifying and investing the University’s financial resources.
– Developing and implementing an effective financial and administrative planning system that achieves the University’s goals of leadership and distinction.
– Planning and activating human resources, focusing on professional development and continuous evaluation.
– Completing the University campus infrastructure, developing its services and modernizing its equipment and material resources.
The Third Goal: Promoting scientific research and graduate studies in accordance with development priorities. Objectives:
– Developing the University’s capabilities in producing knowledge and localizing technology.
– Building scientific research capabilities and linking it to community problems and development priorities.
– Providing accredited postgraduate programs that meet quality standards and development needs.
– Improving the University’s level in the regional and international ranking of universities.
– Promoting the University’s scientific, intellectual and research contributions as a national and regional expertise house.
Fourth Goal: Enhancing the University’s effectiveness at the national and regional levels Objectives :
– Achieving national partnership with various public, private and civil sectors and institutions.
– Developing frameworks for strategic international relations and cooperation with prestigious international universities and institutions.
– Building the University’s capacities, its faculties and centers to provide a pioneering community service.
– Activating the partnership on campus between colleges, centers and departments.