Agostinho Neto University

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The Agostinho Neto University (Universidade Agostinho Neto) is a public Angolan university based in the capital, Luanda. Until 2009, it had campuses in all major Angolan cities. In the academic year 2005–06, 68 licensing courses were ministered by Agostinho Neto University: 18 in Bachelor’s and 15 in Master’s degrees, involving areas of scientific knowledge in the faculties, institutes and higher learning schools. It is one of seven public (state owned) universities in Angola. Until 2009 the Agostinho Neto University was the only public university, but that year it was split up and its campuses outside Luanda were transformed into six autonomous universities, in Benguela, Cabinda, Huambo, Lubango, Malange and Uíge. Today "Universidade Agostinho Neto" is reduced to the status of one regional university among others, confined to the Luanda and Bengo provinces, but even so it is the largest university in Angola. While until 2000 its only competitor had been the Catholic University of Angola, it faces at this stage (2011) the competition of about a dozen private universities.

History

Two state-run university institutions were founded in Portuguese Africa in 1962 by the Portuguese Ministry of the Overseas headed by Adriano Moreira. The Estudos Gerais Universitários de Angola in the former Overseas Province of Angola and the Estudos Gerais Universitários de Moçambique in the former Overseas Province of Mozambique, awarding degrees ranging from engineering to medicine and from economics to agronomy.[1][2] In 1968 the Estudos Gerais Universitários de Angola were renamed Universidade de Luanda (University of Luanda).

After the independence of Angola from Portugal in 1975, the institution was refounded as the "Universidade de Angola" (University of Angola) and in 1985 it received its current title in honour of the first president of Angola, Agostinho Neto. After independence its immediate priority was to produce secondary school teachers as part of a goal of the government's to boost post-primary education; this is why a total of ISCEDs (Institutos Superiores de Ciências da Educação, institutes for educational sciences) were founded in Luanda and other cities. At the same time the faculties inherited from colonial times were maintained and others added, so that the UAN came to include faculties of natural sciences, law, agricultural sciences, social sciences, humanities, economics, engineering, medicine, architecture, and nursing. These faculties were centred on campuses of the university across the country; for example, the faculty of agricultural sciences was/is based in the central Angolan town of Huambo which was known before independence by its numerous education facilities, especially the Portuguese-founded Agricultural Research Institute that was incorporated into the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Agostinho Neto University.[3]

During the 2000s, the Angolan government came to the conclusion that the Universidade Agostinho Neto had grown beyond any manageable size. In 2009–2010 it reduced it to the campuses in Luanda and Bengo provinces. All other campuses were integrated into newly created autonomous regional universities, in Benguela (Universidade Katyavala Bwila), Cabinda (Universidade 11 de Novembro), Huambo (Universidade José Eduardo dos Santos), Lubango (Universidade Mandume ya Ndemufayo), Malange (Universidade Lueij A'Nkonde), and Uíge (Universidade Kimpa Vita). An exception are the Faculties of Education (Instituto Superior de Ciências da Educação, ISCED), e.g., that of Lubango, which continue to be part of the Agostinho Neto University.

Structure

In 2011, the Universidade Agostinho Neto comprised the following units:

  • Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts (Luanda)
  • Faculty of Natural Sciences (Luanda)
  • Faculty of Social Sciences (Luanda)
  • Faculty of Law (Luanda)
  • Faculty of Economics (Luanda)
  • Faculty of Engineering (Luanda)
  • Faculty of Humanities (Luanda)
  • Faculty of Medicine (Luanda)
  • Higher Institute of Health Sciences (Luanda)
  • Faculties of Educational Sciences (Luanda, Lubango, Benguela, Huambo, Cabinda e Uíge)
  • Higher Institute of Tourism (Luanda)
  • Higher Politechnical Institute (Viana)

However, in the context of the construction of a large unified campus (see below), a partial revision of this structure is scheduled. Also, all major faculties are to introduce postgraduate courses permitting to obtain MA/Msc as well as doctoral degrees.[4]

Finances

The university depends overwhelmingly on the state budget. It has evening study programs for jobholders requiring fees. The university and some private universities have benefited from contributions by sponsors operating within the country, such as the oil and diamond companies as well as diverse international entities.

See also

References

  1. ↑ (Portuguese) 52 UNIVERSIDADE DE LUANDA
  2. ↑ Archived 2009-10-24
  3. ↑ [1] See the detailed analysis by Paulo de Carvalho, Víctor Kajibanga and Franz-Wilhelm Heimer, "Angola", in: D. Teferra & P. Altbach (eds.), African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook, Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003, pp. 162-175
  4. ↑ http://www.uan.ao/media/2472/memorando_sobre_a_cidade_universitaria_da_uan-novembro_de_2010.pdf

External links

Bibliography

  • Eugénio Alves da Silva, Universidade Agostinho Neto: Quo Vadis?, Luanda: Ed. Kilombelombe, 2012

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