University of Benghazi

University of Benghazi
Motto	وقل ربِّ زدني علماً
Established	1955
Type	Public
President	Zahi Mogherbi as (Dean)
Students	50,045 (as of 2006)
Location	Benghazi, Libya
Campus	460 acres (1.9 km2)
Former names	Garyounis University
Website	www.benghazi.edu.ly

University of Benghazi (Arabic: جامعة بنغازي‎), formerly known as the Garyounis University, is a public university in Benghazi, Libya.

History

It is the oldest and first Libyan university. It was founded on 15 December 1955 as The Libyan University. The nucleus of the university was the College of Arts and Education, which then had an enrollment of 31 students.

Since then, the College of Science was established in Tripoli, the College of Economics in Benghazi in 1957, the College of Law in Benghazi in 1962 and the College of Agriculture in Tripoli in 1966.

In 1967 the College of Higher Technical Studies, and the Higher Teacher's College were incorporated into the University. The names of these two colleges were changed into the College of Engineering and the College of Education. Moreover, the College of Medicine was established in 1970 in the city of Benghazi. In 1972, the College of Petroleum and Minerals was established in Tripoli.

In 1973 University of Libya was split into two independent universities. All the colleges (faculties) located in Tripoli joined the University of Al Fateh (Now University of Tripoli) while those located in Benghazi joined Garyounis University.

In 2011 after the 2011 Libyan civil war the name of the university has been changed back to University of Benghazi.

Subsequently, the following faculties were established at Garyounis University. The College of Science, the College of Engineering and the College of Dentistry were established in 1974, the College of Agriculture in 1976, and the College of Information Technology in 2006.

Initially Benghazi University occupied temporary buildings in town. James Cubitt and Partners Architects signed a contract in June 1965 for the development of the University of Libya at the two campuses of Tripoli and Benghazi. The first two contracts consisted of extensions to the existing College of Advanced Technology which was to be the nucleus of the new University.

The contract for the new academic buildings was awarded in 1972. The first phase comprising 3 faculties, University library and main services buildings was completed, on a new site to the south of Benghazi. In late 1973, further building contracts were awarded to James Cubitt and Partners for student residential accommodation and dining halls. The master plan shows a similar scale of development to that of the Tripoli University. The overall Master Plan indicated an eventual development of academic and residential accommodation for 12,000 students.

Library

In 2002, the Benghazi University Library had 295,000 volumes, the largest library in Libya.