D ESPITE the very recent development of academic secondary schools for the Congolese, the Official University of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi at Elisabethville and Lovanium University (the two new institutions of higher education) were already offering, before independence, a wide range of programs to a few hundred students of all races. Lovanium was building one of the most impressive campuses in middle Africa and had already installed, in the heart of Africa, an atomic reactor.

Created by the decree of October 26, 1955, the Official University was of course an official institution entirely the State's responsibility. Lovanium was an independent Roman Catholic institution. Established as an institution of public utility by a February 21, 1949 royal decree and granted the title of "university" by a February 3, 1956 royal decree, it was operated under the law of the Congo.

Although legally separate universities, both institutions were governed by boards headquartered in Belgium and composed largely of personnel from Belgian universities. Subject to the Belgian Government's ultimate responsibility and control, the Official University was managed by a board of trustees, which included representatives of several Belgian universities and others. Lovanium was administered in fact as a branch of the University of Louvain in Belgium. Louvain's Rector Magnificus was the chairman of Lovanium's board of trustees; and the members of that board, most of whom were professors of Louvain, were appointed by Louvain's board of trustees.

Each institution had university status and power to grant its own degrees. On this point they differed from university colleges in British-related parts of Africa, each of which prepared its students for the degrees of a British university.

Legal Basis for Instruction

and Degrees

The universities have granted most of their degrees and provided instruction leading to those degrees on the basis of government legis

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lation and within the framework of that legislation. The legal basis of higher education in the Congo is the November 25, 1958 decree previously mentioned on p. 15 of the present bulletin. This document 1 lists degrees which may be conferred in the Congo, naming the two universities as the institutions which may grant them. It lays down the admission requirements for the examinations leading to the degrees. In addition, by requiring that certain intermediate degrees be earned before the first full degree, it provides generally for the structure of the degree programs. Further government decrees laid down. the length and content of each program leading to a degree.

The degrees awarded under the decree of 1958 are the so-called "legal" degrees. The universities are also allowed to award their own diplomas or nonlegal degrees, and, apparently, to set the admission requirements and the content for such programs.

A primary concern of the framers of the 1958 decree (and thus of higher education's organization in the colony) was to assure that the degrees to be awarded there would win equivalency with those awarded in Belgium 2-an objective achieved in 1959. It is therefore not surprising to learn that degrees named in the decree are the same as those named in Belgian provisions. In this way, Belgian degree titles, and thus the Belgian definition of major fields of university study, were brought to the Congo. In laying down admission requirements for degree programs the framers of the decree found it necessary to depart from the Belgian model to meet the special situation in the colony. Although the permanent admission requirements for Congo institutions were the same as those for Belgian institutions, the decree allowed a temporary 6-year period for Congolese to be admitted who could not meet Belgian admission standards. Later, the length, structure, and (with a few exceptions) the course content of the legal degree programs were defined as in Belgium. The presumably nonlegal degree programs also follow the Belgian pattern in titles, program length and structure, and general character of the curriculum.

It is clear that higher education in the Congo was closely modeled on higher education in Belgium. The temporary modification of admission requirements and the provision of special preuniversity courses, however, marked a departure from the Belgian model. Moreover, as will be seen, a certain measure of adaptation, or orientation, of the content of degree programs to Congolese needs was possible

1 "Collation des grades académiques. Bulletin Officiel du Congo-Belge. 51 Année, No. 24. 15 décembre 1958. p. 2300-23.

2 "Rapport du Conseil Colonial sur le projet de décret sur la collation des grades académiques." Bulletin Officiel du Congo-Belge, 51 Année, No. 24, 15 décembre 1958. p. 2251-2252.

through selection from the range of Belgian courses, revision of some of these courses, and development of a few new African courses.

Faculties

By the time of independence most of the major fields of study as defined in Belgium were represented in the Congo. Besides its preuniversity section, Lovanium University had six faculties: law, medicine, philosophy and letters, political, social, and economic sciences, science, and theology. It also had four institutes: an agricultural institute and a polytechnic institute (both of which later became faculties), a higher institute of religious studies, and an institute of psychology and pedagogy.*

The newer Official University had a preuniversity section and four faculties: law (offering both law and social studies programs), medicine, philosophy and letters, and sciences and applied sciences. It also had an interfaculty center of African anthropology and linguistics, a school of pedagogy attached to the faculty of sciences and applied sciences, and, at Astrida in Ruanda-Urundi, & faculty of agronomy.

Special Arrangements

for Congolese

5

Admission. Under the special temporary provisions (articles 38 and 39) of the November 25, 1958 decree, a student who had completed a Congolese secondary program in an "inspected" school, and therefore had a secondary school certificate which could not be ratified, or who had passed an examination on such a program, could enter any university-degree program governed by the decree (except engineering) by passing an examination provided for in the temporary provisions and administered by an examining board (jury central). In practice the examinations were to be taken after a 1-year preparatory course at the university. The temporary provisions were to remain in effect for 6 years, until the end of the 1964-65 academic year. In other words, only students who had already begun a 6-year Congolese course in 1958-59 or earlier would be able to seek admission under the decree's temporary provisions. Afterwards, all applicants would

1954

Order of establishment was the following: 1953-general preuniversity course. Faculty of Sciences, Agricultural Institute, Faculty of Political, Social, and Economic Sciences, Pedagogical Institute. 1955-Scientific preuniversity course, Faculty of Medicine. 1956-Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. School of Technology. 1957-Faculty of Theology, Higher Institute of Religious Studies.

Presumably a government or a subsidized independent school.

в That is, the same board that examined and ratified humanities certificates.

have to meet the entry requirements laid down in its permanent provisions.

Article 38 describes three entrance examinations for degree programs in the following: (1) philosophy and letters, and law; (2) sciences (except physical and mathematical sciences), medicine, and agriculture; and (3) physical and mathematical sciences.

Each of the three examinations described in article 38 covered six subjects. The only subjects required in all three examinations were two languages: French or Flemish as the first language; and the other one of these two, or another European language to be designated by the Governor-General, or African language and culture, as the second. Apparently, changes were made in 1959-60, when Lovanium's preparatory courses included French as the first language and either Flemish, English, or African language and culture as the second. In addition to the two required language courses, the first two examinations included Latin; the second examination, two subjects in science or mathematics; and the third examination, drawing and three mathematics subjects.

These requirements were less demanding than those set forth in the decree's permanent provisions. The comparison can best be made by setting each of the three examinations described in the temporary provisions (art. 38) beside the corresponding one described in the permanent provisions, that is, the examination for entry to the same field of university study. Such a comparison reveals that the former examinations differ from the latter in the following respects:

• Include fewer subjects.

• Require only two languages (French or Flemish plus another European language or African language and culture) rather than three or four languages.

• Require fewer subjects in fields of specialization, such as mathematics. In addition, the examination for entry to university courses in philosophy and letters and law does not include Greek.

Preuniversity Courses.-Before the Congo's independence, Lovanium University was offering the following five preuniversity courses to prepare students for the examinations indicated:

The preuniversity courses were open without an entrance examination to students who had graduated from a 6-year program in a government or subsidized general or special secondary school. Graduates of nonsubsidized institutions, including the lower seminaries, had to pass such an examination.

The forthcoming examination in each case of course determined the content of the preuniversity course that prepared students for this examination. (Part III of the present bulletin will describe the changes made after independence in the preuniversity courses and in table 12 will give data on such courses offered in 1962-63.)

First-Degree Programs

Together, the two universities were offering partial or entire programs leading to first degrees (a term used in this bulletin for degrees requiring 4 or more years of study) in the following:

1 In several of the sciences the universities had developed only the first 2 years.

Admission Requirements.-Programs leading to "legal" first degrees had more restrictive admission requirements than other firstdegree programs.

The engineering program, leading to a "legal" degree, had a single admission requirement: the applicant had to pass an examination (described in article 13 of the 1958 decree's permanent provisions) covering most of the subjects required in the final year of the secondary school's modern scientific humanities program. At Lovanium University the engineering faculty administered this examination and the student had to present a certificate from the faculty stating that he had passed it. The university offered a preuniversity course to prepare students for this examination.

Programs other than engineering that led to "legal" degrees (those in agriculture, law, medicine, philosophy and letters, and sciences) had two different sets of admission requirements: (1) the set in the decree's temporary provisions, applying for 6 years to Congolese students who had taken a Congolese secondary course; (2) the set in the