Interview with Dr. João Sebastião Teta
Principal of Agostinho Neto University

(Em Português)

Luanda, May 28, 2005

We know that University Agostinho Neto is a public university but we want to know about its history, when was it founded and who are the founder?

The history of the Antonio Agostinho Neto University, as the Angolan history still have a lot to be written about, we must separate things because in one side we have U.A.Neto and in the other side we have the higher education study, which we can say was born with the existence of this institution. the higher education study have started in 1962 exactly on the 21st of August of the same year during the colonial regime and by then was called general university studies in Angola and Mozambique.

The general university study took place because of some Angolan patriotic that pressured for the country liberation, giving away social reforms.

The creation of higher education studies was one of the pertinent things to do. By the years 70ies it changed name from University of Luanda then to University of Angola, after the Independence the University of Angola had as a principal, Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto and after his death to honor him for being the first principal it was decided to be called by his name Antonio Agostinho Neto University (A.A.Neto) as an independent institution and an important organ of the a sovereign country, it exists since 1975 but since 1962 as higher education institute.

Now as you know our independence did not come on a the pacific way so just before the independence the university was left with 20 lectures only, most of them left because insecurity reasons on that time. With 3 or 4 Angolan lectures only among those 20, after the independence we had 30 000 students with 30 lectures mostly Portuguese and a few Angolans. As you know, the regime we had then was more connected to the west European countries, so we had a help from countries like Cuba, Russia and Vietnam, but we also had some help from Occidental countries like Spain.

Even though, the help from the Occident was insignificant.

How many students do you have now?

Right now we have 30 000 students, 3 year ago the number was 9 000, this was just before my election which took place on January 8th of 2000 and I took charge on January 29th of the same year.

To change the things I had a problem according to the need of the country, where by the first point was to increase the number of students, secondly to improve the quality of education, investigation and the expansion of the university in the whole country.

Expansion was so important if we wanted to see the number of students increase, considering that Angola population is estimated about 13 000 000 with only 9 000 at university, it was like a drop in the ocean we understood that we should have at least 60 000 students in the higher education in the whole country and this should not only be in U.A.N but including other universities as well.

This expansion should not only be in the number of students but also in the quality of education, so that our students can be recognized worldwide and be able to face the challenge of globalization.

The expansion will also serve to attract the youth to the province, because it is not with a simple political slogan to that we are going to attract the youth to go in the interior areas, the young people demand better works conditions, health condition and living conditions which will lead to the development of the province. This is our strategy and I think we are getting there, considering the 9 000 in the 2000 year then 24 000 last year and now 30 000.

How many lectures does the universities have?

When I took charge we had 80 lectures and today are 1200 lectures, last year we had an increase of 160% and this year of 220%

Well you have now 30 000 students, but we also know that at end of this year you are going to open the university village which will accommodate about 17 000 students?

Yes, this is a project with many stages, as you can see my program goes according to the government program and it doesn’t happen like in other 3rd world countries where by the university program don’t depend much from the government program.

This is a government plan to build a university village together with the public university. The idea is to have the system of department for the basic science like math, physic, chemistry and information technology, like in the U.S.

This will be the first stage of the university village, accommodating 2500 students for the basic science only the second stage will accommodate the engineering courses and third stage will be the creation of the faculty of medicine science. Taking in account the medicine science course we might have a hospital in the university.

By the end we plan to accommodate 17 000 students according to the budget, though by the village space, we can even double this number because at U.A.N. we already have 30 000 students nationwide, and in Luanda we only have around 13 to 14 000 students. In the future according to government we will open more public universities in provinces like Cabinda, Huambo, Huila, Benguela and who knows in other provinces. Right now we consider the U.A.N is the one in charge of creating conditions for the other universities.

We know that universities are fast growing institutes in the country. Do you fear the competition?

Not at all, because they are willing to cooperate with us rather than to compete from the fact that more than 90% of the lecture in private universities are ours effective lectures. It shows that we are not selfish, instead we are encouraging the apparition of new institutions, otherwise we could ask our lectures to stop lecturing in the private universities, and I guaranty you that they will all close. But we don’t do that.

The 1243 lectures that we have, also lecture in privates universities.

It is difficult to get qualified teachers for all your faculties?

Yes of course that’s why we still have around 200 foreign lectures from many countries.

Are they any lectures from the USA?

No, we only have a good relations with some universities in America, language is the biggest problem, that’s why we have mainly lecture from Portugal, Spain, Cuba and Brazil for languages facilities.

Are you thinking about having English lectures?

Yes we do, we project to open an American Cultural Center in Huambo, and it mainly will be to teach English. We don’t know yet if we are going to do this with American government.

So do you have any English course?

Yes but only for people who wants to become English lectures in the high school. Here we have what we call ISSED high institution for educational science; they have English, French for people who are willing to lecturer those languages at high school level.

In the epidemic of Marburg the faculty of medical has been working with U.S.

Yes to mansion that our finalist students in this faculty are in the prevention front line, we are working with the medical academy of Poland.

Do you aim to collaborate more with the USA?

Yes of course. Our faculty of letter and social science was created with the help of Pennsylvania state university, and it has been two years since the creation of this university, with about 3 000 students. And those are very important faculties for the consolidation of Angola as an independent country, considering the courses that exist in this faculty, like, sociology, psychology, anthropology, history and geography, etc.

In the USA why don’t you try to have relations with southern universities, where Spanish is spoken?

This is our aim and we even have an official invitation from the US, but our schedules don’t allow us. We ask our embassy in the state to make this possible, so that we can go there and contact some universities. Our agrarian science faculty already has some contact with American faculties.

Do we have any support from the NGO’s working in Angola?

No we don’t, and basically we depend from the budget of the state, in think we are more in a position to help and not vice versa. It is a priority for NEPAD to eradicate famine, so the faculty of agrarian science is helping many N.G.O teaching them agriculture; here we have a big cooperation.

We also made the vaccination campaign of animal and farmers brought them vaccine and show them the methods.

Spanish cooperation also gave a donation of $500 000 to the agrarian science faculty in Huambo to start a veterinary course which is working already.

With Japan we are going to create an investigation center for food quality, because we don’t have one in the country and it is difficult to identify the genetically modified food, which can get in the country.

We can also work with NGO’s in civism education of people.

To end this interview as my college already said we are here to promote and show Angolan potential to the American investor and our readers. What is your final message for them?

In the beginning I said that our objective was to increase the number of the student in the university, and have done this. To expend, we also have done this. Place like the north of Lunda norte, Lunda sul, Bie and other provinces where there is no high education, they are about to have it. This will help to reduce the immigration of the youth from their provinces and the congestion of people in Luanda, and this not only in the administrative point of view but also academic wise.

My biggest dream is investigation, because a university without investigation is just a big college with a university badge.

We have started with this because three years ago U.A.N. did not have any master course, so it is inadmissible with more than 40 years of existence. Now we have it in key areas like, in medical studies, geology, math, agriculture, methodology of teaching and finally in course that has to do with the oil exploration.

To answer your question, we want the American universities to help us in areas of scientific investigation. As you know USA is a leading country Nobel prizes of science.

Let see in the case of Marburg we are working with Atlanta, and if we were empowered to at least be able to take records here and send to them I believe would be much better, and this should be our next step, to find partners in America to do some investigation work together. And to find people to guide our muster students in their projects, also have the exchange of lecture and help them to improve the English language.

I have to say once again that we are open for partnership.