Cheikh Anta Diop University predates Senegalese independence and grew out of several French institutions set up by the colonial administration.

In the 1970s, a time of state financial crisis, funding to higher education was cut, and international agencies stepped in over the next decade.

With these projects came severe World Bank restrictions, dramatically cutting domestic funding available to university programs.

Nine thousand Senegalese students received a Baccalaureate degree in 2000, while total registration shot above 40,000, for a campus built with only 5,000 dorm rooms.

The education system follows the French pattern, with oral and/or written final exams administered at the end of the year.

UCAD offers courses of study in Humanities, Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Finance, Accounting, and Law.

The Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN), founded in 1936, remains one of the world centers of African Studies.

Many students live in the Cité Aline Sitoe Diatta, near the university campus, and those who can't afford Dakar's often high rents often share rooms.

A Senegalese LGBT organization noted in 2016 that ten cases of homophobic mob violence had occurred at the university since 2012.