The United States has been a key partner in the development of Ethiopia’s higher education system since the 1950’s, with the development of Jimma and Haramaya agricultural colleges under President Truman’s Point Four program.
Since then, dozens of U.S. universities have partnered with the Ministry of Education and Ethiopian public universities with an intensity and persistence unusual in Sub Saharan Africa. Together, U.S. and Ethiopian universities are collaborating to advance the quality of education in a wide range of fields including entrepreneurship, agriculture, peace building, public health, and other areas.
In the spirit of the Point Four program and the 120th anniversary of U.S.-Ethiopian relations, the U.S. Embassy and the Ministry of Education co-hosted a workshop in Addis Ababa January 16 and 17 to help public universities strengthen their international engagements, especially with U.S. universities.
The international affairs directors and vice presidents from the first ten universities transitioning to autonomy and five other universities that are aggressively pursuing internationalization joined the workshop. The program was led by Dr. Erich Dietrich, Vice Provost of New York University Abu Dhabi and an expert in the internationalization of higher education and equity in access to higher education.
Dr. Dietrich is in Ethiopia on a Fulbright Specialist exchange sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. As part of his program in Ethiopia, Dietrich is also working with the Ministry of Education’s internationalization team to help them improve their guidelines, policies, and frameworks for internationalization; Addis Ababa University, which has placed internationalization as one of its most urgent priorities in its transition to autonomy; and Arba Minch University, which is establishing its international relations office as a model to be emulated by other mid-sized Ethiopian public universities.
As Ethiopia moves ahead with its transition of public universities to autonomous governance, the U.S. government is committed to being an essential partner to the Ministry and Ethiopia’s public universities.