Fourah Bay College offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs designed to equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge for their future careers. Our focus on General Civil Engineering provides students with a pathway towards earning a Bachelor of Engineering (B. Eng.) degree, with opportunities for further specialization through a Master of Engineering (M. Eng.) degree.

In addition to engineering, we emphasize the importance of water and sanitation initiatives. Our research assesses the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in establishing essential water and sanitation facilities for rural communities in Sierra Leone. This program, titled 'Water for Survival,' aims to create sustainable solutions for local populations.

The Arts Department is also a vital part of our academic offerings. We are in the process of developing a Theater Arts Program that will enhance our cultural curriculum. This initiative includes strategic planning for future artistic activities, ensuring that our students receive a well-rounded education that fosters creativity and expression.

Choosing an External Hard Drive for Coursework and Research

The title of this page points to a practical question many students and researchers face: how to keep their work safe. Whether you are drafting an engineering design project, collecting field data on rural water points, or recording rehearsals for a theatre production, losing files to a failed laptop or a stolen phone can undo months of effort. An external hard drive is one of the simplest ways to protect that work, and the drives that were popular around 2020 still illustrate the main choices well.

Portable HDD or portable SSD?

Traditional portable hard disk drives (HDDs) use spinning platters. They offer a lot of storage for the money, which suits large archives such as survey photographs, CAD files or video. Their weakness is fragility: a drop while the drive is running can damage it. Portable solid-state drives (SSDs) have no moving parts, so they are faster, lighter and better at surviving knocks in a backpack or on a field trip, though they usually cost more per gigabyte.

What to look for

  • Capacity: estimate your needs for a full degree or research project, then allow extra room. Video and high-resolution images fill drives quickly.
  • Connection: USB 3.0 or USB-C connections are much faster than older USB 2.0 ports. Check what your laptop supports.
  • Durability: rugged or rubber-cased models cope better with dust, heat and travel, which matters for fieldwork outside Freetown.
  • Encryption: if you store interview data or personal information from research participants, a drive with hardware or password encryption helps meet ethical obligations.
  • Compatibility: some drives come formatted for Windows or macOS; reformatting may be needed to share files across machines.

Good backup habits

A single drive is not a full backup plan. A widely used rule is to keep three copies of important files, on two different types of storage, with one copy kept somewhere else, for example a cloud service when internet access allows. Back up on a regular schedule, label your folders clearly, and test now and then that files actually open. Unplug drives during storms or power surges, and use a surge protector where possible.

For more on how studies and projects are organised here, see our research and programs pages.

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