Addis Ababa University is a school of higher education 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. The government assigns qualifed students to these universities upon completion of secondary school. Students also attend other private colleges, such as Unity College .

History

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 affliation 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.

Bibliography

• Teshome G. Wagaw. The Development of Higher Education and Social Change, an Ethiopian Experience. East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State University Press. 1990.

External link

• The Official Web Site of Addis Ababa University