F EXPANSION AND REFORM of secondary education was the first striking development of the Congo's early postindependence years, then the second was general expansion and reshaping of postsecondary education. During the first year and a half after independence, no fewer than four public institutions were established to provide new training programs (of a type and level which can best, although imperfectly, be described as post secondary nonuniversity education) in order to meet the pressing need for well-qualified personnel in several fields. The existing Lovanium University also started courses of the same general type.

With an entry level set at completion of secondary education or less, these programs, generally speaking, are specialized vocational courses that lead to certificates or diplomas not having the status of university degrees. In some cases upper secondary level preparatory courses are also offered to prepare students for these vocational courses. All of the offerings together amount to a considerable effort to give further training for more responsible positions to the great number of Congolese who before the country's independence did not have an opportunity to complete their secondary education.

Developments at Lovanium, the Official University, and the new postsecondary institutions are described below.

Lovanium University

In the summer of 1960, despite the Congo's troubles, construction continued at Lovanium University; and with financial assistance from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, which enabled the university to maintain its teaching staff, it opened its doors to more than 400 students for the 1960-61 academic year, with its atomic reactor guarded by Tunisian U.N. troops.

Administration and Finance

New Statutes.-Lovanium entered 1960-61 operating under new statutes decreed on June 10, 1960 (very shortly before independence),

which transferred the seat of its administrative council from Brussels to Leopoldville and permitted Congolese to play a greater role than before in administering the institution. At the beginning of the academic year, 6 Congolese were among the total 14 members of that council, and by 1963, 10 of the then 17 members were Congolese. At this time nine members were clergymen.

The statutes also provided for the creation of the Higher Academic Council, consisting of the rectors of Lovanium University and the University of Louvain and members of the latter's faculties corresponding to the former's faculties; and assigned the Council a consultative and advisory role.' The Council's membership was the same as that of the former Governing Board, and men who had directed Lovanium now assumed a consultative and advisory role. A quite different but still close relationship between the two universities continued.

By 1963-64 the membership had changed. The Higher Academic Council consisted of Lovanium's rector and 10 members named by the Administrative Council: 2 professors of Lovánium University; 3 professors of the University of Louvain, and 4 other persons from outside these two universities.

Belgian Staff.-Predominantly Belgian before the country's independence, the University staff remained so afterwards. In 1961-62, 83 percent (127 out of 153) of the full-time staff were from Belgium. A total of 21, including 4 from the United States, came from 12 other foreign countries. Five staff members were Congolese.

In March 1964, a correspondent reported as follows concerning Lovanium:

At the moment 80 percent of the staff are Belgian, and of its academic members fewer than 5 percent are Congolese. This is not a healthy state of affairs from an academic point of view, and also it reacts on a second problem, that of student discipline. Relations between staff and students are on the whole bad; a Congolese student invited to a professor's house will suspect the professor's motives, and there is a general disrespect for the University authorities. This is exacerbated by politics: three of the University's four top officers are clerics (although only about 10 percent of the staff as a whole are) while many of the students are anticlerical; and the latter are also pro-Lumumba while Lovanium is associated with the existing regime.2 Legal Basis of Instruction.-As in the past, Lovanium continued to provide instruction leading to legal degrees within the framework of

1 The Council "shall be consulted by the Governing Board on all matters concerning teaching and research in the University, and particularly on the establishment of new faculties, schools, or institutes," and "may recommend to the Board any measures which it deems useful for the development of teaching and research in the University." Lovanium University 1961-62, Leopold ville (Congo Republic), p. 19.

2 "Lovanium's First Decade." West Africa, March 28, 1964.

p. 341.

the November 25, 1958, decree and subsequent subsidiary legislation. That decree was amended by the decree law of February 9, 1961,3 to provide that the President of the Republic, on the advice of the universities, would determine the subject matter and length of studies leading to the examinations on the basis of which legal degrees are awarded.

Finance.-The University has received contributions toward its operating budget and grants for construction from the Government of the new Republic. The Government provides 60 percent of operating costs, 50 percent of capital expenditures, and student scholarship support.

During the post independence years the University has also been receiving financial assistance from the Governments of Belgium, the Federal Republic of West Germany, and the United States; and from private foundations. The following tabulation presents available data on some of this assistance:

Government of

Belgium---

Financial assistance

Annual subsidy: 61,680,000 Congolese francs.

Federal Republic of West Ger- Hard currency grants: many.

United States (Agency for International Development).

1962 $950,000 to construct and furnish student dormitory.

1963 $1,300,000 to construct and furnish hospital clinic.

1963 $8,000 to finance 8 scholarships. U.S. dollar obligations as of June 30, 1964: $409,000 to finance one-third of student dormitory construction cost.

$330,000 to assist in medical school expansion ($158,000 to buy U.S. construction materials and $172,000 to buy U.S. medical equipment and furnishings for the school).1

Annual grants for scholarships

1961-62 (numbering up to 400) $400,000. 1962-63 (numbering up to 500) $240,000. 1963-64 (numbering up to 400) $400,000.

1 The Congolese Government contribution, originating in U.S. Public Law 480, title I funds, totaled 80,010,000 Congolese francs ($533,400 U.S. at the exchange rate of $1: 150 Congolese francs) for technical services and commodities.

3 Decret-loi du 9 février 1961 modifiant le decret du 25 novembre 1958 sur la collation des grades académiques, modifié par les decrets du 8 mai 1959, du 6 juillet 1959, du 25 septembre 1959 et du 26 octobre 1959. Moniteur Congolais, 2me Année, No. 9, 1гe partie, 28 mars 1961.

The original 1958 decree provided that such regulations should be laid down by royal

Enrollment and Graduates

The following tabulation shows total enrollment and enrollment by ethnic group at Lovanium University during academic years 1954-55 through 1963-64.

Total Enrollment. The progressive rise in Lovanium's total enrollment was interrupted only in the first year after the country's independence. In 1960-61 it fell from 485 to 413 as the result of the departure from the Congo of all but 29 non-African students and of a decline in the number of non-Congolese African students from 81 to 42. Total enrollment rose to 746 in 1961-62, 941 in 1962-63, and 1,087 in 1963-64.

Despite the University's steady growth, it is questionable whether the student body in any of the 3 academic years 1960-61 through 1962-63 attained the size which the teaching facilities and the staff might have served. In 1960-61 at least, one of the problems was that the Congo's secondary schools had not prepared enough university candidates. The departure of a large number of students to study abroad under postindependence scholarships and the competition of other Congo institutions have been cited in some publications as additional factors.

Another more obvious obstacle to increasing enrollments was the fact that for more than 2 years after Congolese independence the University had dormitory space for only 500 and therefore had to keep enrollment down. During 1962-1964, however, with financial assistance from the Government of the Congo and the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), it constructed a three-wing dormitory and admitted more students for the 1962-63 and 1963-64 academic years.

Ethnic Composition of Student Body.-The number of Congolese, non-Congolese Africans, and non-Africans has increased since 1960-61.

Of the total 1,087 students in 1963-64, 743 were Congolese, 133 nonAfricans, and 211 non-Congolese Africans. Many of the Congolese students came from the western part of the country, which comprised the former provinces of Léopoldville and Kasai. The 211 non-Congolese Africans came from 14 different countries, including 9 countries where English is the only language of instruction at secondary and university institutions.

In expanding its enrollment of Congolese and other Africans, the University has received considerable assistance from the U.S. Government. Besides contributing funds for dormitory construction, aid, as part of its wider regional scholarship grants program in Africa, made other funds available to the University to enable it to grant to Congolese and to Africans from other countries up to 400 1-year scholarships in 1961-62, up to 500 in 1962-63, and up to 400 in 1963-64. Student Distribution.-The tabulation below for postindependence years 1960-61 through 1963-64 shows the number of students in the preuniversity section and the number doing university-level work in each of the faculties. Students actually enrolled in the faculty of sciences, but preparing for further studies in the faculties of medicine, agriculture, and engineering, were counted as students in these three faculties rather than as students in the faculty of sciences.