The University of Cocody-Abidjan (fr.

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

:Université de Cocody or Université de Cocody-Abidjan UCA) is a university in the Cocody

Cocody

Cocody, is an upmarket suburb of Abidjan, marked by its abundance of mansions. Cocody is where most of the wealthy business people, ambassadors, and other affluent people live...

 section of Abidjan

Abidjan

Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...

, Côte d'Ivoire. It is one of the elite universities in the country and region. With over 50,000 students, the UCA contains 13 faculties and a research center, providing diplomas from 2 year undergraduate degrees to professional academic, medical, legal, and specialist degrees. It was the main campus of the nationwide University of Abidjan from 1964 to 1996, when it became an independent institution. It is state owned and operated, and responsible to the Ministry of Education.

Formation

Founded 9 January 1964, it had 53,700 students as of 2008. UCA was an outgrowth of two French founded institutions from 1958. The Ecole des Lettres d’Abidjan (E.L.A) founded in October 1958, under the joint administration of the University of Dakar and the Ivorian education directorate ("Direction de l’enseignement de Côte d’Ivoire"). Also founded on the same date was the Abidjan Center for Higher Education ("Centre d’enseignement supérieur d’Abidjan"). On 9 January 1964 the government of Côte d'Ivoire fused the institutions and promoted them to the rank of University. The entire public university system was, until reorganization in 1996, known as the University of Abidjan, with the University of Abidjan-Cocody as the largest of three campuses. In the reorganization of August 1996, each of these three main campuses became independent universities, accountable directly to the Ivorian Ministry of Education. The three are the Université d'Abobo-Adjamé

Université d'Abobo-Adjamé

Université d'Abobo-Adjamé or the University of Abobo-Adjamé is part of the University of Cocody, one of two public universities in Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d'Ivoire...

, the Université de Boukaé, and the Université de Cocody. At this time the "Faculties" were re-designated "Unitiés de formation et de researche" (UFR). The university consisted of thirteen UFRs and one "Center". The number of special research centers and institutes have since expanded. In 2008 there were two Autonomous Research Centers in Social Sciences and Mathematics, as well as ten "Institutes" of advanced study.

FLASH

In 1971, the School of Letters (Formerly the E.L.A) became the "Faculté des Lettres, Arts et Sciences Humaines" (FLASH). In 1977, the Department of History, for example, moved from offering only undergraduate courses ("Premier cycle") and began to offer "Deuxième cycle" and "Troisième cycle" diplomas (Master's degrees and PhD).

Autonomous Research Centers

• Centre Ivoirien de Recherche Economique et Social-CIRES, Ivorian center of economics and social sciences (CIRES);
• Institut de Recherches Mathématiques-IRMA, Institute of mathematics (IRMA);

Other Institutes and Centers

• Centre National de Floristique (CNF)
• Centre Universitaire de Recherche d’Application en Télédétection (CURAT )
• Institut de Géographie Tropicale (IGT)
• Institut d’Histoire, d’Arts et d’Archéologie-Africains (IHAAA)
• Institut d’Ethno-Sociologie (IES )
• Centre de Recherche Architecturales et Urbaines (CRAU)
• Centre Ivoirien d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Psychologie Appliquée (CIERPA)
• Institut de Recherche, d’Expérimentation et d’Enseignement en Pédagogie (IREEP)
• Institut de Linguistique Appliquée (ILA )
• Institut des Sciences Anthropologiques du développement (ISAD )