Arba Minch University - Ethiopia

Ethiopian Higher Education Institutes' Policy Framework

The development of higher education has been amongst the highest national priorities of the Ethiopian Government. As a result, the number of Ethiopian universities has been expanded from 2 to 9 in 2004, and from 9 to 22 in 2006.

The Higher Education Capacity Building Program (June, 2002) is expected to help build the development efforts of the federal government, regional states and the private sector. The major aims are to increase enrolment in higher education, to improve leadership and management of the sector, to ensure quality and opening of new education and training programs, to improve institutional efficiency and to provide a legislative framework to the sector.
The establishment of Arba Minch University is the result of this reformation and capacity building program.

The continuous higher education and training reform program led to the Higher Education Proclamation (July, 2003) that granted the Universities, among others, to work under the major mandate of:

• Producing quality and skilled manpower for the country's needs
• Directing the research towards problem solving and utilization of potential resources of the country
• Provide academic freedom and accountability of the higher education institution as well as their administration

In 2004 a strategy document called Higher Education System Overhaul (HESO) was produced that focus on the improvement of governance, leadership and management in the Higher Education sector. It gave the universities, and other higher education institutions, several opportunities to improve their governance, leadership and management. The implementation of the HESO is vital for improved access to quality education in the universities.

Water Sector Policies

The water sector development is one of the major pre-occupations of the government and international bodies in view of the reducing poverty, improving food and water security, and water supply and sanitation situation. As a leading water educating and training institution, the University will participate in the capacity building, research and development endeavors of the country. The Comprehensive Water Resources Management Policy (MoWR, 2000) and the National Environmental Policy (April, 1997) are among the major policy premises that also provide boundary framework for expansion of water education, training, research and development.

The overall goal of the water resources policy is to enhance and promote all national efforts towards the efficient, equitable and optimal utilization of the available water resources of Ethiopia for significant socio-economic development on the sustainable basis. The major policy issues may be summarized as:

• Build and strengthen the necessary capacity in terms of institutions, legislation, facilities, human resources, information system, research and studies
• Focus on development of domestic and livestock water supply, irrigation, industrial water supply, sanitation, hydropower, etc
• Work on crosscutting issues such as water allocation and apportionment, environment and watershed management, water resources protection and management, technical and engineering, water resources management information

Other Policies

Other policies and strategies relevant to the education sector include the Rural Development Policies and Strategies (Nov, 2002), the Industrial Development Strategy (August, 2002), the Capacity Building Strategy Program (January, 2002). These policies and strategies promote agricultural development led industrialization, export led industrialization, labor intensive industrialization. These policies are at the heart of the national endeavors of the government enveloping all sectoral and cross sectoral issues. These policies thus directly or indirectly affect curricular formulation of universities and dictate expansion of education to fulfill the national professional and skilled labor.

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