 The university was established in 1954 as Lovanium University by Belgian colonial authorities following criticism that they had done too little to educate the Congolese people.The university was originally affiliated with the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.When it opened, the university received heavy subsidies from the colonial government and funding from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development and was lauded as the best university in Africa.