It offered a mixture of academic and practical programs, such as those that educated women to teach in rural areas. The newly wealthy elites considered Ahfad as the first choice for their daughters, and its graduates often went on to advanced studies abroad. Stipends were also available to women students of modest means, a step toward improving access by females to education at all levels. See also List of universities in Sudan References Attribution: Sources Mongabay.com article on education since independence Mohammed H. Fadlalla, Short history of Sudan. Google books preview here El Mahdi, Mandour. (1965). A Short History of the Sudan. Oxford University Press. Bedri, Y. (Translator) & P. Hogg. (1980). The Memoirs of Babikr Bedri. Vol. 2. London: Ithaca Press. Babikr's own account of his work in Women's education can be found in vol. 2, pp. 109–70. Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim, A study of neo-Mahdism in the Sudan, 1899-1956.