The Université de San Pedro, opened its doors to 400 students in October 2021. Eventually, however, it aims to educate more than 20,000 students, contributing to the development of Côte d’Ivoire by training professionals in a handful of very specific fields.
The university is based in the coastal city of San Pedro, roughly 330km from the economic capital of Abidjan. As a polytechnic university, it aims to bridge the divide between traditional university learning and professional training, catering to the economic needs of the country.
The university’s five faculties reveal what these needs are: logistics, tourism and hospitality-catering; agriculture, fisheries resources and agro-industry; marine sciences; buildings and public works; and naval construction. There is also a faculty dedicated to preparing students for entrance exams for the grandes écoles, or major engineering schools.
There are campus clubs catering to a range of interests, including music, science, human rights, sports, technology and culture. A university gender club focuses on issues of gender dynamics within the university and beyond; its first meeting was a talk on the subject of “Women leaders in a developing country”.
