ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF HARGEISA
University of Hargeisa is one of high education institutes established in Hargeisa—the capital of Somaliland. It has been established in the year 2000. University of Hargeisa currently offers only Degree programs on multiple faculties, including Business Administration and Economics; Science and Technology; Law and Legal Clinic and others. (http://www.hargeisauniversity.net/).
फोरेवोRD
Really, it is not an easy task to get enrolled at university and have a patience until the end with successful results, especially in Somaliland context because of the more obstacles that are present similar to most African countries i.e. economic ability, and uncertainty in the future, but a long and difficult journey with its considerable consequences.
Thanks to ALLAH for having made it possible for me to manage that long journey with successful results and have my quest and dream of acquiring a university education realized.
For me, this was and Inshaa’ ALLAAH will be a major break-through step in my life and self-improvement efforts, as I believe that learning is the basis of sociality and development..
THE WAY I HAD DEVELOPED MY DECISION TO GO TO UNIVERSITY OF HARGEISA
I had ‘Civil Engineering’ especially Architecture as my favorite field of study when it comes to university education. For this reason, I had began to study Technical Drawing & Design (I had studied that well, although not deeply, and have it as one of the building blocks of my background knowledge) in order to pave the way for my favorite field of study.
The time was running faster than I wanted, none of the Civil Engineering sub fields was available. Anyway I came under pressure to make decision and choose one of the available fields. This time I conceded that ‘Fishing is possible in many ways, no matter which one you know, they all catch fishes’ according to the book MANAGEMENT THOUGHTS FOR THE FAMILY IN BUSINESS of Promod and Vijay Batra.
Therefore, I had made my way to the University of Hargeisa, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY
It was Thursday, 30th September 2004, my first day at the University of Hargeisa—a beautiful rainy day. The new students (5th batch to get enrolled at the university) were introducing to one-another and were talking about the faculties they had chosen.
Anyhow the lectures of the first semester got underway and the first lecture I had attended was an Economics (Micro View) and really was very interesting. There on, things were continuing smoothly, semester after semester, year after year.
In the course of those four-years I had experienced many exciting situations. On the one hand, as normal in the environment of universities, the examinations and the necessary effort on studying, analyzing and reading the text books were really a hard work, whereas on the other hand, there were many social situations that were also of great concern for me particularly. Personally, in the middle of the second semester I had fallen ill and did not attend the lectures for more than thirty days (about one-third of the duration of the semester). In those days, I did not hope that I can resume the university attendance with my classmates but the later batches. Anyway, I had managed that ordeal with help of Allah because I had been reluctant to the forces of despair, and as soon as I felt I can attend the university lectures, I did so while still feeling ill and afraid to lose my control in the campus as well. Thanks to Allah, I had recovered in full and my situation returned normal.
Moreover, as there were two sessions of the lectures (morning and afternoon session) I had been attending the lectures in the morning session for the first two years, and afternoon sessions in the last two years of the university.
Really, this had allowed me to make more acquaintances and friends than single session students (a good point I had not planned but accidentally came across).
As a university graduate, my way of thinking has changed a lot since my first day at the University of Hargeisa. Thanks to the academic and social environment at the university where many Somaliland lecturers who studied overseas—India, Canada, Sudan USA et cetera not only pay lectures but also share their experience of the life in the Diaspora with the students.
In the last quarter of the year 2005 (29th September), the parliamentary elections were scheduled in Somaliland; thus Somaliland National Electoral Commission (NEC) had chosen the university students to be the chairmen and secretaries of the polling stations.
All the students were sworn that they will manage the polling stations fairly and will be impartial among the contesting political parties (Ucid, Kulmiye, and Udub). This was the first time in my life that I was sworn in publicly for any reason. After that I had worked as a secretary/clerk of ‘polling station #810’ in a village near Alleybadey on the border between Somaliland and Ethiopia.
However, the four years in which I was going to the University of Hargeisa despite the acquisition of high education had absolutely a positive impact on my life in the aspects of sociality, morality and personality.
By July 2008, the schedule of four year studying at the university came to an end. For me, that was a good step forward and to the right direction and a success journey in terms of the social experience and the knowledge acquired although this is the start of a long life to come Inshaa’Allaah and the first step of the high education with the prospect of upgrading my recently-achieved Bachelor Degree in Accounting to MBA, then PhD and Beyond. Is There…!
Finally, at the end of the journey, the graduation ceremony was organized and conducted on Monday, 18 August 2008 at the campus of the university. In that day, we (the 250 graduates as the 5th batch of the University of Hargeisa) were awarded the Bachelor Degrees that we were struggling and looking forward to for four years.
All in all, I was feeling sense of achievement and the university days came to an end smoothly.
FIELD OF GRADUATION AND THE WAY FORWARD
The field of Accounting (the one on which I have been given the Bachelor Degree) is a field which is very important with respect to the business context in Somaliland because in most Somaliland businesses, formal accounting is not familiar, but traditional and informal method are employed in order to keep track of financial data and records. This needs to be changed because the formal accounting is more effective and user friendly; but those in needs are unaware.
For this reason, the efforts of introducing the businesses who need formal and suitable accounting practices and techniques have the chance to use knowledge of graduate students. This enhances the career expectations of those graduates who learned Accounting.
Personally I look the way forward with positive and optimistic eyes whether it be my career expectations versus the current situation in Somaliland.
Recently, I have noticed that University of Hargeisa, laid the cornerstone for a post-graduate program in Peace & Conflict Studies; this is good news because my hope of getting a chance to further my knowledge of Accounting to MBA is higher than before.
A WORD ON MY THESIS PAPER
As a partial fulfillment to the requirements for the award of a Bachelor Degree in Accounting, Every graduating student had had to carry out a research project (thesis writing). Since I have been a member of the students, I had chosen a topic on which to make a research. It was entitled ‘The Ownership of Resources and Business Venturing in Hargeisa’. It did encompass several research questions whose objectives were the following:
- To explore how business-owners in Hargeisa got the idea of starting up businesses, if they ever had business lessons, and how they acquired the start-up capital.
- If business prospects/owners seek and believe the importance of business consultations.
- To determine what influenced the choice of one business type than others among business people in Hargeisa.
- The problems that business prospects face when starting up business and if they got help in the start-up stage.
- To explore what businesspeople would be doing with their money if they were not to go to business.
- To determine if their business is primary source of income and if they are thinking over stopping business.
- In the case of business venturing, do they prefer to pioneer a new business or join a traditional one?
- And if they employ practical techniques and knowledge or not.
- Anyway, it had become possible for me to conduct it successfully, and submitted it on time and to the supervisor assigned to me and other nine students.
