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Type | Publicresearch university |
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Established | 21 August 1962; 63 years ago (1962-08-21) |
Rector | Pedro Magalhães[1] |
Location | , |
Campus | Urban |
Website | uan |
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TheAgostinho Neto University (Portuguese:Universidade Agostinho Neto) is the largest public university of Angola, based inLuanda and in the nearby city ofTalatona, inAngola.[2] In the academic year 2005–06, 68 licensing courses were ministered by the 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 country's only public university, and had campuses in all its major cities. In 2009 it was split up, with its campuses outside Luanda becoming six autonomous universities, located inBenguela,Cabinda,Huambo,Lubango,Malange, andUíge. Agostinho Neto University is now one of the seven regional university among others, servingLuanda Province andBengo Province. It remains the largest university in Angola.
Two state-run university institutions were founded in colonialPortuguese Africa in 1962 by thePortuguese Ministry of the Overseas, then headed byAdriano Moreira. They were theEstudos Gerais Universitários de Angola in the formerOverseas Province of Angola and theEstudos Gerais Universitários de Moçambique in the formerOverseas Province of Mozambique, both awarding degrees ranging from engineering to medicine and from economics toagronomy.[3] In 1968 theEstudos Gerais Universitários de Angola were renamedUniversidade de Luanda (University of Luanda).
AfterAngolan independence from Portugal in 1975, the institution was renamed the University of Angola (Universidade de Angola). In 1985 it was renamed its current name, Agostinho Neto University, in honour ofAgostinho Neto, the firstPresident of Angola.
After independence the school's immediate priority was to producesecondary schoolteachers as part of a goal of the government's to boost post-primary education; this is why several 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 ofnatural 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 ofHuambo 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.[citation needed]
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 [pt]), 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) in Lubango, which continue to be part of the Agostinho Neto University.
In 2011, the Universidade Agostinho Neto comprised the following units:
In the context of the construction of a large unified campus in the 2010s, 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]
The university depends overwhelmingly on state funding. It has evening study programs for jobholders requiring fees.
The university, and some of the private universities, have benefited from contributions by sponsors operating within the country, such as theoil companies anddiamond mining companies, as well as diverse international organizations.
8°56′31″S13°16′49″E / 8.94194°S 13.28028°E /-8.94194; 13.28028