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, being 18 in Bachelor’s Degree and 15 in Master’s Degree involving various areas of scientific knowledge within the various faculties, institutes and higher learning schools. It is one of seven recognized universities, both private and public, in Angola [1]. In 2009, the Agostinho Neto University was split up and its campuses outside Luanda were transformed into six autonomous universities, in Benguela, Cabinda, Huambo, Lubango, Malange and Uíge. Today, the "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.
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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 then Overseas Province of Angola and the Estudos Gerais Universitários de Moçambique in the then Overseas Province of Mozambique - awarding degrees ranging from engineering to medicine, and from economics to agronomy..[1] 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 to honor 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 centered on various 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 educational facilities, especially the Portuguese-founded Agricultural Research Institute that was incorporated into the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Agostinho Neto University.[2].[2] 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 as a consequence 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.
At present (2011) the Universidade Agostinho Neto comprises the following units:
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.[3]
The University depends overwhelmingly on the state budget. The University 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.