Cheikh Anta Diop University

Cheikh Anta Diop University (French: Université Cheikh Anta Diop or UCAD), also known as the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, is a university in Dakar, Senegal. It is named after the Senegalese physicist, historian and anthropologist Cheikh Anta Diop and has an enrollment of over 60,000.

Cheikh Anta Diop University predates Senegalese independence and grew out of several French institutions set up by the colonial administration. In 1918, the French created the "école africaine de médecine" (African medical school), mostly to serve white and Métis students but also open to the small educated elite of the four free towns of Senegal with nominal French citizenship. In 1936, under the Popular Front government in France, Dakar became home to the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN), an institute for the study of African culture.

In 1950s, with decolonisation already looming, the French administration expanded these schools, added science faculties, and combined the schools into the "Institut des Hautes Etudes de Dakar". In 1957, a new campus was constructed as the 18th French Public University, attached to the University of Paris and the University of Bordeaux. This became the University of Dakar the largest and most prestigious university in French West Africa. In 1987, its name was changed to honor the Senegalese philosopher and anthropologist, Cheikh Anta Diop.

At independence in 1960, enrollment was 1,018 students, only 39% Senegalese, with most of the rest from other former French colonies. By 1976, this number grew to 8,014.

In the 1970s, a time of state financial crisis, funding to higher education was cut, and international agencies stepped in over the next decade. Most of this funding, though, went to meet the needs of primary schools. In the 1990s and 2000s there was a huge boom in Senegalese primary and secondary education, much of it funded through international projects. In 1984 around 50% of Senegalese children received primary education and by 2004 more than 90% did.

In the mid-1980s around 20% of World Bank funding to Senegalese education went to higher education, but this figure dropped to 7% by the mid-1990s. With these projects came severe World Bank restrictions, dramatically cutting domestic funding available to university programs. As students who have benefited from primary and secondary education age, Cheikh Anta Diop University has had its already stretched resources stretched further. Nine thousand Senegalese students received a Baccalaureate degree in 2000, while total registration shot above 40,000, for a campus built with only 5,000 dorm rooms.

Despite these pressures Cheikh Anta Diop University maintains a reputation as one of Africa's most prestigious institutions. Most of the post-independence generation of Senegalese leaders are graduates of the university, and its alumni teach in universities around the world.

The education system follows the French pattern, with oral and/or written final exams administered at the end of the year. All courses at the university are taught in French, except those in language departments other than French.