Addis Ababa University (formerly Haile Selassie I University) is a university in Ethiopia. It was originally named "University College of Addis Ababa" at its founding, then renamed for the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I in 1962, receiving its current name in 1975. Although the university has six of its seven campuses within Addis Ababa (the seventh is located in Debre Zeit, about 45 kilometers away), it also maintains branches in many cities throughout Ethiopia, leading to the claim of being "the largest university in Africa." The government assigns qualified students to these universities upon completion of secondary school. The writer and theorist Richard Cummings served as a member of the Faculty of Law. Associated institutions include the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, founded by Richard Pankhurst. Addis Ababa University was founded in 1950 at the request of Haile Selassie by a Canadian Jesuit, Dr Lucien Matte, S.J. as a two-year college, and began operations the next year. Over the following two years an affiliation with the University of London was developed.