Established in 2006 with 600 students, UC Maghnia brought higher education and scientific research to a section of the north-western Algerian border province previously only served by the university in the state capital of Tlemcen, 30 miles away.
Maghnia is located fewer than 10 miles from the border with Morocco. Occupied since Phoenician times, it took its name from the 18th-century Sufi mystic Lalla Mughniyah. It is also famed as the birthplace of Ahmed Ben Bella, the first president of independent Algeria.
The UC Maghnia campus is about a kilometre out of the city centre. It occupies a site of around six hectares, bordered by farmland and urban development.
The university centre has four schools, each of them offering courses at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral level. The school of science and technology reflects local needs by specialising in irrigation. The school of economics, commercial and management sciences offers degrees in economics, with final-year and master’s students given the option to studey either monetary and banking economics or economics and enterprise management.
The school of arts and language was initially focussed on Arabic language and literature, with specialist options in Arabic literature, applied linguistics and Arabic criticism. Since 2020, it has also offered a degree in English language.
The school of humanities and social sciences is the most recent of the four schools, established in 2020.
UC Maghnia publishes five biannual academic journals, covering law, economics and the humanities.
