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Higher Education Development in Ethiopia: A Brief Historical Account

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Higher Education in Ethiopia

Part of the book series: Education Policy & Social Inequality ((EPSI,volume 2))

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Abstract

In Ethiopia, Western-style modern higher education (HE) has a history of less than eight decades. In this relatively short period, the system has passed through a series of changes. Following a passing account of Ethiopia’s religion-based traditional education system, the chapter presents a brief historical account of the development of modern HE in Ethiopia and summarizes major challenges the system has faced. In doing so, the chapter seeks to set a historical context for changes and continuities in relation to the problem of inequality in the system.

/Kulu amekkru we ze senay atsni’u. Literally: investigate all sources, choose the righteous.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This Ethiopic phrase has been used as a motto of Ethiopia’s first modern HE institution—Haile Selassie I University (HSIU), now Addis Ababa University.

  2. 2.

    Some believe that Christianity arrived in Ethiopia in the first century (as is indicated in the Bible, Acts 8:26-40). Others argue that Ethiopia was the second, after Armenia, to become a Christian state. In many accounts, outside the Roman Empire, Ethiopia was the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion.

  3. 3.

    This reflects what French political philosopher and lawyer Charles-Louis Montesquieu remarked about 270 years ago: ‘the laws of education will be different in each kind of government. In monarchies, their object will be honor, in republics, virtue; in despotisms, fear’ (Montesquieu, 1989 [1748], p. 31, emphasis in original).

  4. 4.

    It is worth noting that the key problem in Ethiopian polity is not lack of knowledge or imagination but of goodwill and commitment. For example, although it has been a common knowledge that Ethiopians suffer brutal repression and total control during his over two-decade rule, the late PM Meles Zenawi is said to have claimed: The society that I wish to build is one that, when demanded to jump, asks “why” rather than “how far”’ (EPRDF, 2014, p. 3).

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  1. Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Tebeje Molla

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Molla, T. (2018). Higher Education Development in Ethiopia: A Brief Historical Account. In: Higher Education in Ethiopia. Education Policy & Social Inequality, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7933-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7933-7_2

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