University of Sousse

Aspiring to be "one of the major players in the socio-economic development of the country and region", the University of Sousse is a public university based in Tunisia’s third largest city of Sousse, around 90 miles from Tunis. It was formed in 2004 when the huge University of the Centre, (a successor to the University of Monastir), was divided into three new institutions. It offers a wide range of academic and professional training in the basic, legal, economic and management sciences, technology, agronomic, medical, paramedical, arts and human sciences. There are 17 higher education institutions (four faculties, four schools and nine institutes). In 2006 it was among the first Tunisian universities to adopt the bachelor, master's and doctor progression of qualifications. The Medical School predates the formation of the university, dating back to 1974, and it operated in close cooperation with the University of Montreal between 1978 and 1992. It has three teaching hospitals – Farhat Hached, Sahloul and Ibn El Jazzar de Kairoun. There are 16 research laboratories, 22 research units, 6 common service units for research and 4 doctoral schools. The university has 57 international cooperation conventions with universities all over the world. Tunisia's Minister of Defence in 2019 Abdelkrim Zbidi, began his academic career training medical technicians in 1981 at the university. He then rose to be President of the University of the Centre from 1994 to 1999 and Dean of Medicine from 2005 to 2009. He is a candidate in the presidential election on 15th September 2019.