Universite de Kinshasa is regarded as one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s three main universities. It was founded in its capital city, starting as Lovanium University, an offshoot of the Catholic University of Louvain, in October 1954.
Incorporated into the New University of Zaire in 1971, it regained independence as Universite de Kinshasa in 1981.
In 1957 it become home to Africa’s first nuclear reactor, which remains on campus.
It is located on a 400-hectare site at Mount Amba, about 15 miles from downtown Kinshasa,
Students can study across faculties of arts and humanities, law, economics and management, social science policy and administration, engineering, science and technology, agricultural science, psychology and education, media, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary science, and petrochemistry and renewable energy.
International partnerships include relationships with Laval University, Canada and the University of South Dakota for agricultural education and the University of Liege for tropical medicine while research centres include the Congo Basin Water Research Centre.
In May 2024, it launched a "one student, one computer" project aiming to improve access to computers for its students.
