"Njala University College (now Njala University) was established in 1964. Since then, it has served as a major centre for training middle level agricultural extension workers and teachers at secondary school level. The Government of Sierra Leone and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) agreed on a contract to assess the needs for Sierra Leone in Agriculture and Education. Later in 1967, Njala University College became a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone which comprised of Fourah Bay College (FBC), College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), and the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM). Due to the out break of the rebel war in 1991, Njala University College was relocated to Freetown in January 1995. The College operated in Freetown for close to a decade i.e. 1996-2005...

Currently, Njala University is comprised of two campuses, the Bo Campus and Njala Campus. The University has eight Schools: Agriculture, Education, Environmental Sciences, Social Sciences, Community Health Sciences, Technology, Forestry and Horticulture, and Medical Sciences. In August 2005, six of the Schools became operational, viz: the Schools of Education, Social Sciences and Community Health Sciences at the Bo Campus, and the Schools of Agriculture, Environmental Sciences and Technology at the Njala Campus. The School of Forestry and Horticulture also became operational at the Njala Campus in October 2007. These Schools prepare sub-degree, undergraduate and postgraduate students for careers in teaching, agricultural extension and in various specialties in the environmental and community health sciences, and in information technology....Njala University was mandated to:

• Encourage the advancement of learning and development of educational, economic, social and ethical standards among the people of Sierra Leone;
• Endeavour to improve the health and general welfare of the population;
• Provide instruction for research and dissemination of research result;
• Grant degrees, diplomas and certificates and such other awards as the University may determine.

In addition to the two main University campuses, Njala University is host to other institutions; there is a National Agricultural Training Centre (NATC) (formally known as the Certificate Training Centre), jointly founded by the Government of Sierra Leone and the British Government; and the Njala Agricultural Research Centre (formally Institute of Agricultural Research, IAR), a wing of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS), founded to carryout research on root and tuber crops and maize. NATC was setup to train agricultural middle-level manpower."

- About Njala University

"The University of Illinois displays breadth and depth in disciplines relevant to multifaceted global health challenges, from the One Health of humans, animals, and environment to the development and implementation of technologies which address clean water accessibility to the business of agricultural production in developing economies. The Global Health Initiative seeks to advance a cohesive program which utilizes global health as a common thread to demonstrate our capacity for interdisciplinarity as the norm in research, education and outreach. This includes developing programs which prepare the global health leaders of tomorrow with sensitivity to globalization, experience with international partnership, and a mindset of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Njala University in Sierra Leone was established in 1964 by faculty from the University of Illinois with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Since that time, civil war in Sierra Leone lasting from roughly 1991 through 2002 took a tremendous toll on the Njala University system, including loss of facilities, staff, and students. But Njala has since emerged form wartime losses to embark on a phase of growth in the international scene, including strengthening of the relationship between Njala University and the University of Illinois, led by a number of faculty and students, primarily facilitated by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES).

The Global Health Initiative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a 2011 Focal Point program, recently assembled a delegation which sought to explore opportunities to expand this relationship with Sierra Leonean partners around a global health theme through an exploratory visit with support and participation from the College of Medicine, the Center for Global Studies, Scientific Animations without Borders (SAWBO) at the University of Illinois, and the University YMCA. Building upon this commitment to a core interdisciplinary global health partnership, the Global Health Initiative and collaborating partners are seeking to launch a formal program which establishes the Illinois-Njala Partnership as a fixture of scholarly activity at Illinois."

-Illinois Global Health Initiative website