Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa University is a
university in
Ethiopia. It was originally named "University College of Addis Ababa" at its founding, then renamed for the former Ethiopian emperor
Haile Selassie I in 1962, receiving its current name in
1975.
Although the university has six of its seven campuses within
Addis Ababa (the seventh is located in
Debre Zeit, about 45 kilometers away), it also maintains branches in many cities throughout Ethiopia, leading to the claim of being "the largest university in Africa." The government assigns qualifed students to these universities upon completion of secondary school. Students also attend other private colleges, such as
Unity College.
Addis Ababa University was founded in 1950 at the request of
Haile Selassie by a
Canadian Jesuit, Dr
Lucien Matte as a two-year college, and began operations the next year. Over the following two years an affiliation with the
University of London was developed.
As part of their sweeping changes, the
Derg ordered Addis Ababa University temporarily closed
March 4, 1975 and dispatched its 50,000 students to the countryside to help build support for the new regime. Ironically, it was a group of former college students in
Tigray Province who founded the
Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front to resist the Derg government, which later joined a number of other groups to become the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.
The university offered its first
master's programs in 1979, and its first
PhD programs in 1987.
* Teshome G. Wagaw.
The Development of Higher Education and Social Change, an Ethiopian Experience. East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State University Press. 1990.
*
Official web site of Addis Ababa University*
Contemporary Africa Database entry for Addis Ababa
