Agency fights to maintain standards during HE expansion

By Jonathan Dyson. The Ethiopian government’s Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency, HERQA, is to implement new measures designed to raise standards in universities. The initiative comes amid major concerns about the state of the country’s fast-growing tertiary education sector.
The number of public universities in the country has grown from two to 34 over the past 12 years, and there are now seven private universities and 52 polytechnic colleges. Each of Ethiopia's nine regions, apart from Gambela, now has at least one university.
Such rapid expansion has brought with it growing doubts about the quality of teaching and other resources, as well as the employability of graduates.
Dr Tesfaye Teshome, director general of HERQA, told University World News that a new quality assurance programme is set to be introduced, focused heavily on measuring the specific skills and other attributes being attained by graduates. Read more...