The origins of AAU are a two-year college established on 20 March 1950 by the Jesuit
Lucien Matte, at the appeal of His Majesty Emperor
Haile Selassie I. It began operations the following year. Over the following two years an affiliation with the
University of London and
University of Oxford was developed. Africans from various parts of the continent would receive free scholarships through programs subsidized by the
Organisation of African Unity for higher learning. AAU was also known for sending its students abroad for an extended interpersonal educational experience, and having those students return with the exemplary standards of the international community. The nucleus of AAU was formed with the establishment of the University College of Addis Ababa (UCAA) in 1950. UCAA, which initially consisted of the Faculties of Arts and Science, became a fully fledged college when it was chartered in 1954. In 1955, the Building College was opened. In February 1961, these various colleges and the Theological College were brought together to form the Haile Selassie University. Emperor Haile Selassie I gave his
Guenete Leul Palace to serve as the administration building and main campus. He had abandoned the palace, where a number of his ministers and favorites were killed in the wake of the
abortive coup d'état in 1960, in favor of the new Jubilee Palace. Following the 1974 revolution, the university was briefly renamed University of Ethiopia (National University) before it came to assume its present name, AAU, in 1975. In the wake of the revolution, AAU was closed for two years and students and staff were drafted into what was known as the Development through Cooperation Campaign (
zemecha), designed to raise the awareness of the rural population in the spirit of the revolution. The university offered its first Master's programs in 1979 and its first PhD programs in 1987.
Administration (center) and French Canadian Jesuit Fr. Lucien Matte, SJ (right) at the university, 1951 Until 1974 the charter provided for a governance structure in the following descending order or authority: Chancellor (the Emperor himself); the Board of Governors, composed of ministers and members of the royal family; and the Faculty Council, made up of the university officers, deans, directors and elected members. The Faculty later became the Senate. In 1977,
Duri Mohammed was appointed president of AAU. Under his leadership the academy was preserved and even saw its resurgence despite the turbulent times amid the
Ethiopian inserruction. The AAU also lost its relative autonomy when it was brought under the Commission for Higher Education, which came to exercise administrative jurisdiction over all institutions of higher learning. In 1993, AAU was placed under the
Ministry of Education by a government proclamation. The incoming transitional government appointed Duri Mohammed as president once again, and a purging of 42 staff members which included
Asrat Woldeyes and former president Alemayehu Teferra ensued. ==Influence==