ADDIS ABABA — The transition of Ethiopian public universities to autonomous governance constitutes a generational change in the nations' higher education system, according to Ministry of Education officials.
The officials also noted that allowing public universities to chart their own paths towards greater academic freedom, increased financial control, enhanced linkages with domestic and international partners, and, most importantly, improved quality of education.
The United States government and U.S. universities have a long history of partnership with Ethiopian higher education with the shared goal of improving the quality of higher education.
At the June 3 and 4 conference on Ethiopian Public Universities' Transition to Autonomy Conference, here Monday, the U.S. government demonstrated its historic ties to Ethiopian higher education remain strong.
The conference featured presentations by Addis Ababa University's (AAU) leadership team about the progress they have made in developing the key framework policy documents essential to their successful transition to autonomy.
University leaders from the next nine leading universities also heard insights and lessons learned from the process offered by the Technical Expert Advisory Team, funded by the U.S. Embassy as part of 316,000 USD grant to U.S.-based NGO IIE to support the higher education system's transition to autonomy.
The Technical Expert Advisory Team consists of Ethiopian and American higher education experts with a combined 80 plus years of experience in higher education in Ethiopia, the United States, Europe, and throughout Africa who are working with AAU's leadership team to provide expertise and global perspective.
Interim AAU President Samuel kifle (PhD) said this input has helped AAU develop stronger, more enduring policies that will not only ensure AAU's success as a newly autonomous university, but also providing invaluable templates and models for the other public universities transitioning to autonomy as they develop their own framework policies.
The policies developed to date through this U.S. government-supported process include AAU's strategic plan and its university senate legislation policy (both officially adopted in January 2024), and its student admission policy, resource mobilization and diversification policy and strategy, endowment policy, internationalization policy and strategy, and the AAU Health Governance framework for university's teaching hospital and school of medicine, all of which are still in development.
Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Naomi Fellows said: "In the spirit of the Point Four program and the 120th anniversary of U.S.- Ethiopian relations, we want to assure you that the U.S. government and U.S. universities are your closest allies in this critical moment in the Ethiopian higher education system."
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Accordingly, partnership in higher education is nothing new in the U.S. - Ethiopian relationship. The U.S. government and the American people have been committed to the success of higher education in Ethiopia since the very beginning of our 120-year long bilateral relationship. From individual professors who helped establish departments and colleges of law, agriculture, and public health, to the founding of Haramaya, Jimma, and Gondar Universities under the U.S. government's Point Four program to today's efforts, the U.S. government and U.S. universities are proud of the key roles they have been able to play in the development Ethiopia's higher education.
BY TEWODROS KASSA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 6 JUNE 2024
