Ministry Keen to Work Closely with US Universities

Addis Ababa , October 25/2019 Ministry of Science and Higher Education is keen to work with US universities in diverse areas with the view to improving quality of higher education, State Minister Professor Afework said.

The above remark was made today during a meeting aimed at advancing higher education for science through partnership between Ethiopia and U.S.A.

In his opening remark, Science and Higher Education State Minister Professor Afework Kassu said the role of education and science as well as technology and innovation is crucial to accomplish the grand national goal of transforming the nation to become a middle-income country by 2025.

State Minister Afework pointed out that development of curricula, joint programs and projects, joint research, training and capacity building of academic staff, technical assistants, student and staff exchange, and structuring the education delivery system are among the priority areas identified.

According to Professor Afework, the government has allocated a quarter of its budget to education, and goodwill and readiness, diverse research possibilities and untapped cultural, natural, and historical resources are the opportunities.

Foreign Affairs State Minister, Aklilu Hailemichael said, “ Despite all the gains, we recognize that there is still much work to be done and a need for concerted efforts in terms of quality.”

He added that the country has to enhance the relevance and quality of development, delivery and assessment of academic programs in order to realize the vision of building national science and technology capacity through competent human resources.

Aklilu further hoped to twin new sister universities and strengthen the existing cooperation between universities and higher education institutes of the two countries.

Ohio State University Global One Health Initiative Executive Director, Dr. Wondwossen A. Gebreyes said on his part such events can build upon the existing pilot activities in order to create a synergistic and long-term partnership.

“Based on the draft discussion so far, we would like to strengthen joint training for PhD programs, sister university partnership, and to establish and long-term sustained partnership not just for universities but making grass-root impact be it in agriculture, food security, child and maternal health,” he elaborated.

The executive director urged the Ethiopian government to commit higher proportion of its resources to research and development.

Ethiopia has 50 public universities and 229 private higher education institutions, out of which 4 are universities. Around one million students are enrolled in private higher education institutions and public universities, and 1,622 public and private TVET colleges.