The Agostinho Neto University is the largest public university of Angola, based in Luanda and in the nearby city ofTalatona, in Angola. 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 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 in Benguela, Cabinda, Huambo, Lubango, Malange, and Uíge. Agostinho Neto University is now one of the seven regional university among others, serving Luanda Province and Bengo Province. It remains the largest university in Angola.
After Angolan independence from Portugal in 1975, the institution was renamed the University of Angola. In 1985 it was renamed its current name, Agostinho Neto University, in honour of Agostinho Neto, the first President of Angola. After independence the school's 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 several ISCEDs 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.
De-centralization and autonomous regional universities
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, Cabinda, Huambo, Lubango, Malange, and Uíge. An exception are the Faculties of Education in Lubango, which continue to be part of the Agostinho Neto University.
Structure
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.
Finances
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 the oil companies and diamond mining companies, as well as diverse international organizations.
