MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND HIGHER

EDUCATION –ETHIOPIA

ETHIOPIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK

MAY, 2019
BISHOFTU, ETHIOPIA
 List of the Ethiopian Higher Education Curriculum Framework
Development Taskforce
Sn Name Institution Address
1. AlemayehuBishaw (Professor) Bahir Dar University [email protected]
1. AbebeAbera (Assis. Prof.) Jimma University [email protected]
2. AlemayehuBishaw (Professor) Bahir Dar University [email protected]
3. AlmawKifle (PhD.) Kotebe Metropolitan University [email protected]
4. AshenafiBekele EBTi [email protected]
5. DawitAsrat (PhD.) Bahir Dar University [email protected]
6. EyobelMulugeta (PhD) EBTi [email protected]
7. GemechuMisso (PhD.) Kotebe Metropolitan University [email protected]
8. KebedeGamo EBTi [email protected]
9. KibireTadese DebreMarikos University [email protected]
10. MekonnenEsubalew (PhD) DebreMarikos University [email protected]
11. Melaku Adela (PhD.) Dilla University [email protected]
12. WaqtolaCheneke (Assis Prof.) Jimma University [email protected]
13. YilmaGezmu (PhD.) Dilla University [email protected]

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Table of contents
Contents Pages
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1
Expansion of Facilities ............................................................................................................................... 5
Higher Education Quality Assurance......................................................................................................... 6
Identified areas to organize the Ethiopia higher education curriculum framework .................................... 7
Vision:........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Mission: ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Values ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Guiding principles ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Principle one: World-work related educational curriculum/relevance ................................................ 9
Principle two: Community engagement .............................................................................................. 9
Principle three: Practice based education system ................................................................................ 9
Principle four: Research/inquiry based................................................................................................. 9
Principle five: Inclusiveness ................................................................................................................ 10
Principle six: Student Engagement and development ....................................................................... 10
Principle seven: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). ....................................................... 11
Principle Eight: Preparation for life ..................................................................................................... 11
Principle nine: Curriculum Relevance ................................................................................................ 11
Principle ten: Transition to Learner Autonomy. ................................................................................. 11
Principle Eleven: Building a 21st century curriculum ......................................................................... 12
Principle twelve: Differentiation ......................................................................................................... 12
Principle Thirteen: Interdisciplinary approach.................................................................................... 12
Principle Fourteen: Culturally Responsive curriculum ........................................................................ 12
Desired competencies............................................................................................................................. 12
Structure of the Ethiopian higher education system .............................................................................. 14
Year/duration of study ........................................................................................................................ 14
Program composition.......................................................................................................................... 14
Mode of delivery ................................................................................................................................. 14
Staff profile ......................................................................................................................................... 14

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 Admission criteria ............................................................................................................................... 15
Graduation requirement ..................................................................................................................... 15
Class size ............................................................................................................................................. 15
Teaching methods ................................................................................................................................... 16
Assessment techniques........................................................................................................................... 17
Stakeholders’ involvement ..................................................................................................................... 18
Professional support .................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Curriculum management_____________________________________________________________20
Quality assurance mechanisms................................................................................................................. 8

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 1. Introduction

Higher Education in Ethiopia has a long history. The best example to justify this statement is the
beginning of Yared Music School which was established in the 5th century. One of the strong
justifications to this bold conclusion is that the purpose of the school was to train highly qualified
priests that are well trained to run religious music and dancing. Saint Yared’s invention is still
practiced in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The musical Nota developed by St. Yaredis still
being taught in Ethiopian schools and is being practiced in higher level trainings of the Ethiopian
Orthodox church (Alemayehu& Solomon, 2017).

Although Ethiopia possesses a 1,700 years of tradition of elite education linked to Orthodox
Church, secular higher education was initiated only in 1950 with the founding of the University
College of Addis Ababa (Girma, 1967). The University College had less than 1,000 students and
less than 50 teachers in the late 50's, where in most of the teachers were foreigners.

During the following two decades, half of dozens of specialized technical colleges were
established to address training needs in agriculture, engineering, public health and teacher
education. They include the college of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, College of Engineering
at Addis Ababa, Institute of Building Technology, Gondar Public Health College, Theology of
Holly Trinity and Kotebe College of Teacher Education. With the former Soviet Union
assistance, Ethiopia established its first Polytechnique Institute at Bahir Dar in 1960s. It was
giving training in Agro mechanics, Industrial Chemistry, Electricity, Textile Technology and
Wood Technology. In 1961 most colleges were reorganized under Hailleselassie I University (
Marew, 2000).

These institutions hosted an educational culture that was heavily influenced by its long informal
association with Orthodox Church (Teshome, 1990). In their academic organization, they were
somewhat more American, and less British, than in the former colonies of East Africa.
Strikingly, tertiary enrollment totaled only 4,500 in 1970 out of the national population of 34
Million. The resulting tertiary enrollment ratio of 0.2% was among the very lowest in the world.
The skilled human resource available to generate and guide development in one of Africa’s

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largest and poorest countries was therefore very small in relation to the economy of the task
(Pankhurst et al, 1990).

The nation’s new higher education institutions strived, with considerable early success, to
maintain international standards, but the cost was high, with wastage rates approaching 40% in
the late 1960s (Teshome, 1990). Awareness of the need for reform began to grow as
demonstrated by the 1964 decision to require one year of community service of university
students prior to graduation. But these incipient reforms were shortened by political events. In
1974, a socialist military coup overthrew the government of Emperor Hailesellassie and
established a regime known as Derge. The same year the name of the university was changed to
Addis Ababa University (AAU). Immediately after claiming power, the Derge adopted many of
the radical ideas espoused by the university community such as land reform, nationalization of
industries, linguistic independence, creation of a national communist party, rural service for
university students which ultimately alienated many students from academics (Teshome, 1979).
In 1977 the revolutionary government issued Higher Education Proclamation No. 109/77. In this
proclamation a new organization of higher education including the establishment of the
Commission for Higher Education were entertained. This document also outlined the main
objectives of higher education to be
 To train individuals for high level positions in accordance with the national plan of
development and to provide medium-level personnel to meet the immediate needs of the
economy.
 To improve the quality of education.
 Strengthen and expand tertiary level institutions.
 Establish new research and training centers and.
 To contribute to a better standard of living among the masses by developing science,
technology, the Arts and the Literature.
Based on the framework of the proclamation, the colleges were reoriented to reflect the new
regime’s objectives and modified admission criteria to benefit students from small town, rural
areas, students of poor family, returnee of military service, students of military family and to
some degree to female students. This was the first attempt of the Derge regime to provide equity

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in education. It is because such admission criterion helps to uphold class, gender, and rural urban
equity in access to higher education.

Higher education expanded in the period after 1975. A post graduate studies program was
established in 1978 which had an enrollment of 246 students in 1982/83, of which 15 were
women. Graduate programs were offered in several fields, including engineering, natural
sciences, agriculture, social sciences, and medicine. To support the training given in these fields
different research institutes were established. Addis Ababa University and its satellite colleges
like Bahir Dar Teachers College provided an evening extension program offering courses in
many fields. The extension programs had opened a great opportunity for those who did not get
access to higher education through matriculation and for those who needed to upgrade their
qualification through on job training. The college of agriculture at Alemaya, which was part of
Addis Ababa University, was granted independent university status in 1985 (Teshome, 1997 and
Teshome 2004).

Other junior colleges trained middle level man power in several fields. These include Cottebe
College of Teacher Education, Municipality College and Junior College of Commerce, all in the
capital. Other outside of Addis Ababa constitutes Junior Colleges of Agriculture in Ambo,
Awassa and Jimma, Arbaminch Water Technology Institute, Institute of Health Assistances in
Debreziet, Wondogenet College of Forestry, and Jimma Health Sciences Institute. Due to
shortage of colleges and universities in the country, the competition for admission was so
intense. The cutoff point of university admission was changing year after year (Marew, 2000).
Three notable outcomes followed over the following two decades. Intellectual life emaciated on
campuses, academic brain drain increased and the country’s education system became largely cut
off from the western world (Ibid).

As 20th century drew to a close, Ethiopia found itself with a higher education system that was
regimented in its management, conservative in its intellectual orientation, short of experienced
doctorates among academic staff, concerned about declining of quality of education, weak in its
research out puts, limited in its autonomy, and weakly connected to the currents of the

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international higher education community. The reform pressures that had began to build in the
1960’s only to be suppressed by the Derge in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Only 15% of those who complete high school education are admitted to higher education each
year. When EPRDF came to power in 1991, the majority of higher education institutions were
either closed because some of them were occupied by the then freedom fighters and students of
some higher education institutions were sent to different military camps for military training by
the Derge regime.
In 1999 enrollments reached 5,154 and 7,199 in diploma and degree programs respectively.
There were a total of 27,345 regular students in the institutions of higher learning in 1998-99
academic years. Of these, 16% were females. The number of graduates in the year 1999 was
6111; of these 14% were women. The rate of enrollment and graduation of female students was
still at low level. Until 2000, there were only two universities. In 2002, 6 additional universities
were established (MOE, 2003).

The Ethiopian Education Sector Development II (2002) set out a vision for higher education’s
role and its aim. The aim of higher education was formulated to provide good quality higher
education in large number, with diminishing dependence on public resources in the longer terms.
Thus, in its main aim the reform program links the issue of quality, the context of expansion and
greater market awareness. Ethiopian higher education is indeed expanded rapidly. From 1996-
2003 undergraduate enrollments doubled to 18000 in public sector higher education institutions
and tripled overall.

The government had exerted strong pressure on universities to respond to the growing demand of
higher education in the country. One of the strategies to expand higher education was opening
graduate programs in various fields. Consequently, graduate programs were established in eight
universities, Addis Ababa, Alemaya, Bahir Dar, Mekele, Gondor, Jima, Arbaminch, Hawasa.
Despite such attempts, however, there was a difference of pace between the way universities
react to the government’s intention to expand graduate programs and that of the government. To
tackle this problem, the government has set a different strategy. That is, the Ethiopian
government has signed an agreement with Indian Universities (IIT and Delhi University) and

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UNISA, South Africa to train 2000 Ph.D and 10000 M.A/M.Sc trainees in information
technology, sciences and business fields through teleconference mode of delivery (Abiy, 2005).
The years from 1999-2007 are characterized by high expansion of higher education in terms of
student enrollment, fields of study, graduate programs in the already established universities by
adding additional infrastructure, libraries, laboratories, dormitories, classrooms sport fields and
computer centers and establishing additional Thirteen new universities in the different regions of
the country. The new universities include DebreMarkos, Axum, DebreBerhan, Semera,
MedaWallabu, Wollo, WolaitaSodo, DirieDawa, Dilla, Wollega, Jijiga, despite these efforts,
participation remains low at 2% of school leavers. Currently, there are 34 public universities and
many other private university colleges.

As to Teshome (2004), generally, the higher education of the current government has passed
through three major stages. They include:
1. Policy and strategy adaptation, especially the legal framework
2. Rehabilitation and expansion of facilities
3. Improvement and revitalization of the system
The first of these stages focuses on setting a working higher education proclamation. As a result,
the Higher Education Proclamation 351/2003 was announced. The second stage was meant to the
construction of building for classrooms, dormitories, libraries, laboratories, computer centers, etc
and other educational facilities. The third stage was assuring the quality of higher education
training and education by developing quality assurance system.

Expansion of Facilities
In 1991 there were only two universities in the country. Currently there are 50 public universities
and many other private universities. The establishment of universities demanded huge sum of
money, training qualified human resource and fulfilling the necessary facilities. The expansion
of higher education was challenged with the absence of adequate classrooms, laboratories,
dormitories, dining rooms and other facilities. One of the aggressive measures the government
has taken was allocating a very huge some of budget for expansion.

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Higher Education Quality Assurance
The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) is an autonomous agency
established through the Higher Education Proclamation (351/2003) as one of the key agencies
responsible for guiding and regulating the higher education sector in Ethiopia. The mission of
HERQA is to help ensure high quality and relevant higher education system in the country. The
agency is mandated to report on the relevance and quality of higher education offered by all
higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ethiopia. One of the central roles of HERQA is to
encourage and assist the growth of an organizational culture in Ethiopian higher education that
values quality and is committed to continuous improvement (HERQUA, 2007).

To sum up, the major driving forces of the reform can be summarized into three. There is
increase in students’ number, more institutional autonomy and greater market focus on quality.
To realize these objectives the reform follows three major steps. They are setting legal
framework, fulfilling the prerequisites and setting the quality assurance mechanisms.

The three years undergraduate program is highly criticized for the quality of training given due
to the duration of the training. The language ability of both higher education instructors and
students is believed to be deteriorating from time to time. Students are assessed to have low level
of critical thinking and creative abilities (Alemayehu, 2014). To overcome this problem, the
Ministry of Education has designed language training for English language teachers of high
school and higher education (Alemayehu& Solomon, 2017). Among othe4rs, the graduate
unemployment has now become a serious political agenda in the country. Apart from mismatch
between the economic development to accommodate university graduates and the number of
university graduates, lack of competency of graduates is believed to be one of the causes for
unemployment.
To overcome such challenges the government has conducted a nation a wide study to design the
education sector roadmap. One of the suggestions of the study is to establish the ministry that is
responsible for higher learning institutions. Accordingly Ministry of Science and Higher
Education (MoSHE) was established with Proclamation No. 1097/2011. After establishment,
MoSHE has identified the critical findings of the roadmap and started to act. One of the major

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challenges of higher education as indicated in the roadmap in Ethiopia is found to be curriculum
relevance.

The Ethiopian Education curriculum could not properly address national unity among graduates,
critical thinking, important non cognitive skills, employability skills, communication skills,
global outlook, and digital literacy to cite few. To alleviate such problems MoSHE has organized
the curriculum framework taskforce from various universities and developed the Ethiopian
higher education curriculum framework.
Identified areas to organize the Ethiopia higher education curriculum framework
include:
 Vision  Structure
 Mission  Pedagogy
 Values  Support structure
 General Principles  Stakeholders’ involvements
 Key competencies  Quality Assurance mechanisms

Vision:
To see rational,productive and motivated graduateswho explore &create knowledge to contribute
to the national development and become globally competent by 2030.

Mission:
To produce knowledgeable, skilled, morally matured and world-minded graduates who
contribute to the national development and solve societal problems through training, research
and community engagement.

Values
Value refers to deeply held ideas and beliefs that define what is acceptable in an Ethiopian higher
Education. Values are conveyed through thoughts and actions, which qualify the higher
education actors to achieve mission and vision of Ethiopian higher Education. Accordingly, the
following are identified as Ethiopian higher education values.
 Power of reason
Value for logical thinking, evidence based decision, doing things based on comparative
advantages of the things.

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 Innovation
Innovation refers to ability of generating new, unique or novel idea, devices, methods,
process, products etc.
 Social responsibility
Being ready to be servant of the society and accountable to rules, regulations and cultural
heritages of the society.
 Trustworthiness
Being loyal to one’s profession; value authorities’ ideas; research evidences and be
ethical and unbiased.
 Diversity in unity
Diversity in unity is a concept of "unity without uniformity and diversity without
fragmentation that shifts focus from unity based on a mere tolerance of physical, cultural,
linguistic, social, religious, political, ideological and/or psychological differences towards
a more complex unity based on an understanding that difference enriches human
interactions.
 Democratic culture
Respect others idea, convince others based on reasons and concrete evidences. Academic
freedom, fairness and justices in academic decisions
 Teamwork/collaboration
Strive to work and live cooperatively and collaboratively; to resolve differences in
peaceful, nonviolent and constructive ways
 Lifelong learning
Learning from successes, and failures; taking formal, non-formal and informal episodes
of the world as means of learning opportunity. Learning from prior experiences and the
existing conditions and able to imagine what will happen in the future. It is the process of
thinking about thinking (Metacognition)
 Adaptability
Develop flexibility and resilience to adapt to changing conditions, be able to adjust with
new or different situations; conceptualization of ideas, concepts theories, technologies
etc. to one’s local and national contexts, it is one’s ability to fit for purpose.

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  Commitment or passion
Have sense of empathy; work hard for the wellbeing of the nation.
 Self-initiative
Intrinsic motive that urges someone to be committed, responsible, brave enough to
overcome challenges and work for the sustainable development of human beings.

Guiding principles
Principle one: World-work related educational curriculum/relevance
Making knowledge work:
 Ethiopian higher education has a strong commitment to the development and application of
knowledge, skills and attitudes in the engagement of world of work.
 In order to realize such competency higher education has to provide programmes including
different field of studies that emphasis the application of experiential learning to the real
world engagement. This makes major contribution to graduates developing their skills and
attributes for employability.
 All higher education programmes should be flexible enough to allow students to full access
the broad range of learning opportunities offered within the universities.

Principle two: Community engagement

Engaging education stakeholders
 Connections between HEIs and the multiple resources that exist in the communities to
improve students’learning outcomes that promotes a shared accountability between HEIs
and education stakeholders.
 Stakeholders’ effectiveengagement is critical to institutional success. To ensure that higher
education students of today are readied for the careers of tomorrow, universities and
community groups need to work together to promote real world and experiential learning.

Principle three: Practice based education system

Promote Real World and Experiential Learning.
 A key factor in motivating and engaging higher education students is making direct
connection between their curricula and the world with which they are engaged.

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  Curricula can be enhanced by integrating real world learningin the form of work
experience, community-based or practice-based projects, live briefs from companies and
businesses.

Principle four: Research/inquiry based

Research informed curriculum
 One of the factors that distinguish a Higher Education experience is that it is conducted
within an institutional atmosphere of research.
 A research-informed curriculum is one:
 Which engages learners with current research relevant to their subject, discipline or
profession.These include opportunities to interact and engage with researchers, learn
through research and enquiryand evidence based education.
 Where student learning is a process driven by research process of investigation,
synthesis and discovery and enquiry-based.
 That valuesdeveloping a range of graduate attributes.

Principle five: Inclusiveness

Promote Inclusive curriculum
 Higher education in Ethiopia need to be committed to educational experience inclusive
to the diversity of its students and staff, and that addresses achievement gaps of all
students
 Higher education teaching and learning process need to be varied and flexible enough to
meet diverse learners’ need.
 Higher education curricula shall be designed in a way that reflects the diverse cultural
and national backgrounds of the students.
 Equality impact assessment and analysis of curricula should become part of the
programme design, development and approval process, as well as subsequent evaluation.

Principle six: Student Engagement and development

 Higher education curriculum puts students at the center of learning. Higher education
program need to design and deliver coherent curricula reflecting an appropriate subject
and professional focus.
 The development of students is supported and guided throughout the programme.

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  The curriculum should develop students’ self-awareness.
 The curriculum should make connections between the formal and informal learning
opportunities.
 The Curriculum should provide significant space for learners in curriculum development,
researchand assessment practices.

Principle seven: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

 Ethiopian higher educationcurriculum should meetinternational standard.

 The higher educationcurriculum maintains existing institutional commitments to integrate
sustainable development with the formal and informal experiences of all students.

Principle Eight: Preparation for life

 The higher education curriculum should foster the development of skills in preparation
for healthy life.
 The higher education curriculumshould developself-reliant, responsible and independent
graduates who value work and persevere to succeed.

Principle nine: Curriculum Relevance

 The Ethiopian Higher education curriculum offers learning that is purposeful, and encourages
students to see the value of what they are learning.
 The Ethiopian higher education curriculumshould take into account the country’s social,
cultural, historical, spiritual, economic, political, environmental, technological and other
related issues
 The Ethiopian higher education curriculum has to value indigenous knowledge system.
 It ensures that learning is relevant to their present and future livesby exploring significant
contemporary and emerging issues such as technology, sustainability, enterprise, and
citizenship.

Principle ten: Transition to Learner Autonomy.

The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should develop learner autonomy as life-long
learners.

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 Autonomous learners emerge from a process where they are strategically afforded more
responsibility, decision making and choice regarding the content and nature of their
learning/research as they proceed through their programme.

Principle Eleven: Building a 21st century curriculum

 The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should develop 21st century competencies.
 Higher education should develop and implement a curriculum that is rigorous, intentional
and aligned with national, state and local standards requirements.
 The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should widen students’ international
perspectives.

Principle twelve: Differentiation

The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should differentiate instruction to recognize
students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and
interests and to react responsively.
The Ethiopian higher education should be governed by the principles of differentiation in
developing programs.

Principle Thirteen: Interdisciplinary approach

 The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should be comprehensive and integrated by
bringing together multiple discipline areas.
 The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should encourage teachers
integratecontentsacross different disciplines.

Principle Fourteen: Culturally Responsive curriculum

 The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should promote culturally responsive
instruction.

Principle Fifteen: Adaptation, innovation and application of technology

The Ethiopian higher education curriculum should:

 Promote adaptation of technology

 Promote application of technology in education
 Work towards innovation and transfer of technology to the community

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 Desired competencies
Key competencies Description of competencies Indicators
Technology Graduates of Ethiopian higher education will  Gain necessary digital literacy to
develop the basic understanding of their level
technologies and apply in their personal and  Data (information)management
professional endeavors.  Computational skills
Rational thinking Graduates of Ethiopian higher education will  Develop the disposition to be
develop CT dispositions and skills and rational, responsible and open-
become rational, responsible and reflective minded citizens.
citizens  Logic/reasoning
 Be reflective thinker
Communication Graduates of Ethiopian higher education will  Develop excellent
develop the ability to communicate, have communication skill
mutual intercultural respect and protection,  Communication
and develop teamwork sprit/collaboration  Intercultural and social
competency
 Have sprit of team work
 Collaboration
Lifelong learning Graduates of Ethiopian higher education will  Develop lifelong learning
develop the disposition to become adaptive competencies
and life-long learners for pursuing an active  Lifelong learning /Learning
and healthy life style competency
 Adaptability/localization
Environmental Graduates of higher education will  Develop environmental
responsiveness demonstrate active and responsible protection and preservation skill
citizenship on social, political, economic, and  Environmental responsiveness
environmental issues  Local and global views
 Leadership competency
Workmanship/ Graduates of higher education will have the  Be workmanship (effectiveness
employability skill professional employability and and efficiency)
entrepreneurship competence and the ability  Apply/use the KSA acquired to
to apply the knowledge and skills they everyday life and the world of
acquired to everyday life and the world of work
work  Professional competencies
 Employability skills
 Entrepreneurship
National pride Graduates of higher education will develop a  Develop a sense of national pride
sense of national pride and patriotism and patriotism (citizenship)

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Structure of the Ethiopian higher education system
Year/duration of study
The duration of Ethiopian higher education system will range from a minimum of two years
diploma program to a maximum of six years (MD and DVM) for first degree programs based on
the nature of the programs. The diploma programs will be 12 + 2 and 12 + 3 in duration. All
regular degree programs will be completed within 4 – 6year duration with 130-180 credit hours
(229 -316 ECTS). Similarly, for masters degree and specialty programs the study period ranges
from 2 to 4 years where course work will be completed in the first year and subsequent year/s
will be dedicated for thesis or research work. In academic fields where subspecialty programs are
required, the duration for such fields will be from 1- 2 years. Terminal degree/PhD programs
needa period of 3 – 4 years depending on the nature of their research project. For non-regular
degree programs the study duration will be 6-7.5 years for evening and 5-6 years for summer
programs (8 chrsface to face and 6 chrs tutorial and holding diploma is a requirement for
admission).

Program composition
For all first degree programs, the courses will be arranged as common, supportive and core/major
courses. Similarly, all masters degree programs will be thesis based.

Mode of delivery
The higher educational programs will be delivered in regular, summer, Distance/online, Evening,
and Weekend modalities. However, all PhD programs should be administered in regular
modality.

Staff profile
Any higher education instructor must be at least one academic level above the student he/she is
supposed to teach. Accordingly, to teach any undergraduate program, one should have at least a
masters degree in the same field of study. Any technical assistant should hold at least first degree
in the field of study he/she is assigned to assist (e.g. lab engineers). To conduct teaching for
masters class and advise/couch students, one must have assistant professor academic rank or
should hold a PhD in the field of study. In the same manner, to teach and advise PhD candidates,
associate professorship with PhD is mandatory.
NB:

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  For employment as teaching staff in higher education the candidate has to pass
examination on subject matter, English language skills and teaching methodologies.
 After employment as university teaching staff one has to be certified with pedagogy
training.

Admission criteria
First degree:
 Minimum of 50% score on general education completion examination
 Entrance exam prepared and administered by the university.
Masters degree:
 First degree with minimum cGPAof 2.5.
 Entrance examprepared and administered by the university.
PhD:
 Mastersdegree with minimum of B or Good thesis result
 Entrance exam prepared and administered by the university.

Graduation requirement
First degree:
 cGPA of 2.0 and above, taking major courses into consideration
Graduate programs (Masters/PhD)
 cGPA of 3.0 and above scoring at least B in all courses

Class size
First degree
 Lecture: maximum 60 students per class
 Skill: 25 – 35 students per class
Masters
 Maximum 15
PhD
 Maximum 8 (only regular program)

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Teaching methods
The Ethiopian higher education Curriculum promotes the development of inquiry based
approach to the learning and teaching which requires: learning for understanding; relevance,
reason, meaning making and purposeful engagement on the part of the learners; reasoning
through facts and evidences among learners and teachers; the development of knowledge, skills
and attitudes which promote self-directed and lifelong learning.

The Ethiopian higher education curriculum presents a holistic view of teaching and learning that
indicates direction in which effective practice should move. The pedagogical dimensions in the
curriculum support teachers to focus on required skills, values, and content knowledge and
expertise to produce innovative and creative citizen. Therefore, the Ethiopian higher education
system is expected to establish systems which help students master the multi-dimensional
abilities required of them in today’s diverse and complex world.

The pedagogical dimensions are strategies which ensure that students experience success through
structured support and recognition of their efforts to accomplish the intended learning outcomes.
In this regard, it is important for teachers to acknowledge that individual differences exist and
that all students do not learn in the same way. Thus, a diverse range of pedagogies must be used
to meet student needs, enhance their learning experiences and engage them in teaching learning
process. The Ethiopian higher education pedagogy is required to create conducive conditions for
logical reasoning, exploration, inquiry, learning through critical thinking, problem solving and
metacognition.

While planning teaching and learning, universities should be flexible and support the
development of deep levels of thinking and application. They should also ensure that students
receive constructive feedback that support further learning. At the same time, integration of
technology into classroom instruction is imperative as technology has become a platform for
teachers and students across the globe to communicate and share instructional materials.
Ethiopian higher education teaching and learning process should be the blend of theoretical,
practical, services learning and work place attachment.

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Starting from first year completion until the year before graduation, student should be engaged in
service learning at a minimum of one month and must be certified from the organization which
gets the service.

Assessment techniques

The Ethiopian higher educational curriculum recognizes the importance of assessment, both as a
tool of learning and as a means of establishing the extent to which the desired learning outcomes
have been achieved. The purpose of assessment is to determine the extent to which the learner
has acquired the expected competencies with a view to informing interventions for further
acquisition and mastery of expected competencies. Assessment helps to diagnose and monitor
the progress of a learner, and provides feedback to learners, teachers and curriculum designers
and implementers. This helps them plan learning in terms of what the learner needs in order to
continue advancing and fill gaps in understanding or performance. It also provides guidance on
the selection of future subjects, certification and promotion to the next progression level.

Assessment plays a crucial role in the teaching learning process, providing opportunities for
students to demonstrate evidence of what they know, understand, and can do. When assessment,
instruction and the intended curriculum are aligned, it provides optimum conditions for learning,
thus maximizing students’ achievement.

Assessment in higher education curriculum can be classified into

 Diagnostic assessment
 Formative assessment
 Summative assessment
1. Classroom diagnostic assessment: are used to provide educators with information about
students’ prior knowledge, skills, attitudes, learning styles and motivation to assist them to
develop an effective learning program that suits the educational needs of the learns.
2. Formative assessment/Assessment for learning
Is a process where students are assessed as the teacher proceeds with a lesson or unit to provide
ongoing feedback to the teachers and students. Example informal observation, checklist,

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listening to students’ responses, class participation, self and peer assessment, quiz, test, home
take activities, group work.
3. Summative evaluation/Assessment of learning
Is usefully done at certain point of the academic year or certain components such as completion
of units to judge the appropriateness of what is being taught. Some of the methods used for
summative assessment are chapter tests or unit tests, final examinations, term papers, projects
and national examinations.

Therefore, for Ethiopian higher education curriculum students must take at least one quiz, one
test, one mid examination and one final examination for each course. In addition, laboratory
based and clinical based courses will be addressed accordingly. A student will be allowed to take
a maximum of 1 re-exam per semester.
Assessment should focus on measuring as to whether students have achieved the required
competencies(higher order skills, i.e. why, how, etc).

Grading system
Fixed grading system should be used across the higher educational institutions.
Letter grade Number value Remark
A+ 90 and above
A 85-89.9 Fields that require higher level of precision may
B 75-84.9 develop their own grading system in consultation
C 50-74.9 with MoSHE
D 40-49.9
F <40
NB:
 Assessment of achievement should focus on individual competence.
 Assessment at postgraduate level should follow the existing practice and focus on
individual competence.

Stakeholders’ involvement
 Students  MoSHE
 Teachers /instructors  MoE
 Communities  Industries
 Research institutions  NGOs
 Professional associations  Other private and government
 Trade unions organizations
 Business organization

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Key notes:
Any government, nongovernmental and private organization/office should be open and
supportive to higher education students during summer practice, practical attachment and
internship.
MoSHE/government should take responsibility to prepare conducive practical site for
students by dealing with respective industries/companies
Students must be involved in local community service based on their field of study during
the summer vacations
Higher educational institution should have system for monitoring and evaluation for student
and staff research. There must be a system to have raw data repository/data set.

Curriculum management.
The curriculum management consists of the process that involve curriculum
design, implementation, curriculum evaluation and impact assessment
Curriculum evaluation

Existing Curriculum

 There must be continuous evaluation of the existing curriculum relevance. This

should constitute evaluation of the relevance of units of the course, courses and
the program as a whole.
 Unites of each courses should be evaluated every year.
 Each course should be evaluated every two year.
 Each program should be evaluated every five years

For new curriculum:

The development of the curriculum of new programs should seriously consider the
practices of university differentiation, relevance to the local community,
international standard and the Ethiopian higher education curriculum framework
guideline. The development process should follow the scientific procedures such
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as, needs assessment, stakeholders’ involvement, professional assessment,
consideration of national long term and short term plan, availability of resources,
and the job market. Developing new programs can start from universities.
However, the final approval for starting the programs should be given by Ministry
of Science and Higher Education.

Quality assurance mechanisms

There must be a system that insures the quality of higher education programs on
continual basis. This involves the provision of comprehensive exam, exit exam,
Tracer study /employer satisfaction, internal quality auditing and accreditation
through nationally established independent quality assurance office. Besides, the
quality assurance office should work towards standardization of programs through
benchmarking.

Universities should establish organizational structure that manages the curriculum

and follows the employment of graduates. This further demands the establishment
of Alumina of graduates. This office should develop the data base every year about
the status of the graduates. Besides, this office Should work to identify the
available jobs in the labor market.