University of Makeni

The University of Makeni aspires to be a top-tier institution of higher learning with a reputation for excellence in teaching, research, and community service, where social justice and lasting peace are values that cut across boundaries.

About the University of Makeni

The first private, Catholic institution is called the University of Makeni and is situated in Makeni, Sierra Leone. It was formerly known as the Fatima Institute and is frequently abbreviated as UNIMAK.

On October 8, 2005, the Emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makeni, headed by Reverend George Biguzzi (born in 1936, in Italy), formed it as the Fatima Institute. It received university status in August 2009 and adopted its current name. owned by the Diocese of Makeni, whose chancellor also happens to be its bishop.

UNIMAK joined the Mental Health Coalition (MHC) of Sierra Leone as a founding member in 2011, together with the City of Rest and the Community Association for Psychosocial Services (CAPS). The coalition of groups has been at the forefront of requests for reform of the mental health sector in Sierra Leone. They specialize in providing mental health services, academia, and activism.

In the period between 2014 and 2016, the University of Makeni was temporarily shut down due to Ebola precautions. 2018 saw the establishment of a new UNIMAK campus in Sierra Leone’s Koinadugu District. The first university to start operations in the area is UNIMAK, and the campus is situated in Kabala Town. As part of a campaign led by President Julius Maada Bio to increase young people’s access to higher education, the university scrapped application costs in 2018.

The institution joined the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, LFR International, the Holy Spirit Hospital, and Agency for Rural Community Transformation (ARCT) as founding members of the First Responder Coalition of Sierra Leone (FRCSL) in 2019. The Coalition’s goal was to “facilitate the development of emergency first responder programs to alleviate the burden of traumatic injury in Sierra Leone.”

The first private university in the nation to be owned by the Catholic Mission is privately owned by the Emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of Makeni. Members of the Makeni University Governing Council also have control over it. As a university that prioritizes research, UNIMAK’s research activities span a wide range of fields.

Meeting with researchers from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, representatives from Makerere University, and the University of Makeni in Uganda discussed developing institutional capacities to offer public health education. The relationship has aided in the development of the university’s health education program.

To provide in-country sequencing capabilities to process patient samples from Makeni, researchers from the University of Cambridge and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute built temporary genome sequencing facilities in 2015, during the final stages of the Ebola crisis outbreak. Their goal was to study the unusual transmission of Ebola by sequencing the virus in real time. The facilities were relocated to the university when the situation was resolved, where they now serve as the UNIMAK Infectious Disease Research Laboratory. 

The facility offers training for local researchers and students, which is essential for sequencing and managing ongoing Ebola cases in Makeni without the presence of outside collaborators.

As one of just two Sierra Leonean universities collaborating in the PREDICT Ebola Host Project (the other being Njala University), UNIMAK has played a key role. The PREDICT initiative has its headquarters at the UC-Davis One Health Institute and is financed by USAID. Two groups started looking for hemorrhagic disease reservoirs in West Africa after the Ebola Crisis to avert further outbreaks. The CDC and Njala University headed one group, while UC-Davis and UNIMAK led the other. The effort allowed researchers to identify an Ebola virus species (Marburg Virus) in a host (fruit-eating bats) before it was ever found in an infected person or ill animal.

The only university in Sierra Leone that provides special needs teacher preparation at the moment is UNIMAK. The Ministry of Education has promised the government that it is supporting policies for the extension of these programs in Parliament based on UNIMAK’s initiatives, but the lack of special needs instructors in Sierra Leone has become a priority for the ministry.

Faculty and Departments At the University of Makeni

Faculty of Commerce and Management

• Accounting and Finance
• Banking and Finance
• Business Administration and Management
• Human Resource Management 
• Procurement Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Faculty of Agriculture

Faculty of Education

Faculty of Law and Humanities

Faculty of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences

• Department of Clinical Psychology 
• Department of Nursing 
• Department of Public Health 

Faculty of Mass Communication and Computer Science

• Mass Communication 
• Computer Science 

Faculty of Social Science

• Clinical Psychology 
• Development Studies 

Frequently Asked Questions about the University of Makeni

How many Students Does the University of Makeni admit per year?

Answer: This is at the discretion of the school but currently there are approximately 1500 students in the university.

Is the University of Makeni a Federal or State School? 

Answer: It is a private university.

What is the cut-off mark for the University of Makeni?

Answer: Visit the university website to find out.

What is the University of Makeni’s Official Website?

Answer: www.unimak.edu.sl

Is the University of Makeni a good school?

Answer: Yes. The university ranked 3rd in Sierra Leone and 11567th in the World 2023 overall rankings.

Are there hostels at the University of Makeni?

Answer: Yes!

When is the Admission Form coming out for the University of Makeni?

Answer: Check the school website to find out.

Who founded the University of Makeni?

Answer: The university was established as the Fatima Institute by the Emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makeni led by Reverend George Biguzzi.

What are the requirements for the University of Makeni?

Answer: Admission Requirement

Candidates wishing to pursue Certificate, Diploma, and Degree programs must fulfill the following requirements:

• Certificate level – 3 credits of WASSCE or ‘O’ levels in not more than two sittings;
• Diploma level – 4 credits of WASSCE or ‘O’ levels in not more than two sittings;
• Degree level – 5 credits of WASSCE or ‘O’ levels in not more than two sittings or 4 credits together with a Higher Teacher’s Certificate (HTC) from a recognized institution.
• In all of the above requirements, English Language should be included as one of the credits.
• Postgraduate programs – candidates should have a degree (with a division two or better) from a recognized University together with at least one or two years’ work experience.
• For Agriculture, candidates should have among his/her credits three of the following science subjects: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Mathematics/Agriculture/Statistics.