EDITOR’S NOTE: There are more political prisoners than college students in Ethiopia under the US – and EU-financed brutal dictatorship in Ethiopia.
By John Gill | Times Higher Education
Concerns about heavier workloads and the “managerialist” culture of universities are not the exclusive preserve of the UK – they are also being voiced in Ethiopia.
The worries are set out in a paper published in the journal Higher Education Quarterly, which analyses the consequences of the expansion of Ethiopia’s university sector.
In the country, which has a population of 80 million, education is underdeveloped. Primary schooling is not available to all, and access to tertiary education is worse than in any other sub-Saharan nation.
However, the past 15 years have seen the “massification” of higher education, with access to universities growing four- to fivefold. By 2007, enrolments had risen to almost 200,000, according to the paper by Kedir Tessema, an academic at Addis Ababa University.
Ethiopia has 21 universities, many of which were started from scratch two to three years ago. But the report highlights an “acute” shortage of qualified staff, with the proportion of lecturers holding a PhD falling from 28 per cent to 9 per cent in just six years.
The study suggests that academics are bogged down by the number of tasks they have to do and struggle with class sizes, which on average have grown from 35 students in 2000 to more than 100 today.
One academic interviewed said: “Too much teaching, plus administrative assignments, plus my own research … is damaging my social and family life.”
The paper says: “Massification has resulted in increasing workloads and extended work schedules for academics. A managerialist attitude has evolved that measures teaching against instrumental outcomes. There is a sense of deprofessionalisation and deskilling among staff.”
(The writer can be reached at [email protected].)
8 thoughts on “There are only 200,000 college students in Ethiopia”
Elias,
Remember that in 1991 only 16000 students were in colleges including those who were enrolled for Diploma.
Leave alone the new ‘universities’ and take one of oldest institutions-Jimma university.
It has started many postgraduate programmes.
but most of them are funny
most departments have only one lecturer
like-internal medicine(which is led
by a last year graduate internist from the same institution, is supposed to “teach” hundreds of medical students, and also is “teaching” post graduate students of internal medicine-HE ALONE.! He is also head of department of internal medicine and….
Exactly same is the department of ophthalmology-a single doctor for undergraduate, postgraduate teacher,head of department, head of medical school…It all is funny
dear Addis,
I don’t find the luck of trained professionals in Jimma medical school Funny; what I find funny is the fact that we Ethiopians have become accustomed to being SUCH CHRONIC COMPLAINERS, but when it comes to proposing real solutions to the problem–NONE!!! You seem very unhappy about the situation, and you have all the reason to be… but what is your solution (DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT AND MAY BE YOU CAN TEACH YOUR FELLOW CHRONIC COMPLAINERS BY EXAMPLE). Sorry if I’ve been to harsh on you (:
Never in the histroy of world has ever a building alone instituted a higher education by itself, but only in the TPLF Ethiopia. This is a gimmic created by TPLF to keep the fund flowing from donors. While good institutes are created and developed in Mekele and the rest of Tigray, in the remaining part of Ethiopia existing educational centers are left to decay, the new one which are now built outside of Tigray are there solely to fill the statics on report prepared for donors.
dear yegremal
before you pinpoint to one place, think like an Ethiopian who cares for the development of the whole educational system in Ethiopia. There is no such thing, what you have said is out of the reality…might be the instructors have a better opportunity to go abroad and learn their masters and doctoral degrees very easily as the consular offices are through TPLF or the scholarship opportunities are taken by TPLF.
Please those of us who are out of Ethiopia for education purpose, let’s go back and do for our country after we finish our education…
SHALLOM
i was two times in jimma to give lectures in gyncology i have seen how they are working i am proud of the ethiopian proffesors they are contributig a lot for the health service and bringing the best doctors health officers
Guta, If your types who give gyncology lectures rather than gynaecology, it tells the whole truth and depicts the true picture of the countries education or mis-education. Just see how many mistakes are found in your 41 word sentence. I counted for you- at least 11! Are you a doctor who graduated from Dedebit medical school?
Dear Kumssa Your argument is nonsense We are talking
about facts The university in jimma is working it is
giving a good health service your knoweldge in englisch
is not going to save the mother and the child we need
to educate a lot of young people in any price I tell
the doctors in Jimma were better than in europe
were I am working now sorry for my englisch I am a
graduate from Germany I say bravo for the Lecturers who
are working there day and Night You are working good and
continue the same way
your graduates are good to work any were in the world
I am sure the graduates there are going to save a lot of
life The opthlmologists are abel to operate and save alot of blindes Kummssa your englisch is good thank you for your corrections