Application

Yizengaw, Teshome

• Vice Minister
  
• Ministry of Education
  
• Department of Higher Education
  
• Ethiopia

Dr Teshome obtained his Masters (1990) and Ph.D. (1995) in Soil Sciences from the University of Gent, Belgium. He is currently Associate Professor in Ambo College and Debub University in Ethiopia.

As Vice Minister for Higher Education, Dr. Teshome has been instrumental in the recent expansion and reform of higher education in Ethiopia. During his tenure, the number of universities has increased from two to eight, private education has been introduced and mushroomed, and the number of students in higher education institutions has increased from about forty thousand to about two hundred thousand.

His major research interests include expanding access to higher education while keeping quality and standards and re-engineering leadership and management systems. He has attended training and seminars in the UK, The Netherlands, Norway, France, Kenya, USA, Ghana and India in higher education administration and management, quality assurance and enhancement, implications of globalization for higher education in the South, strategic choices for tertiary education.

Selected Papers

• Policy Development in Higher Education in Ethiopia and the Role of Donors and Development Partners. Paper presented at the International Expert Meeting-"The Changing Higher Education Landscape"; The Hague, 23-24, May, 2005.
  
• The Status and Challenges of Ethiopian Higher Education System and its Contribution to Development. Ethiopian Journal of Higher Education, Vol 1, No.1, 2004
  
• Transformations in Higher Education: Experiences with Reform and Expansion in the Ethiopian Higher Education System. Keynote address to "A training Conference on Improving Tertiary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Things That Work, September 23-25, 2003, Accra, Ghana.
  
• Higher Education and Research for Development: From the Ethiopian Perspective. Keynote address in the Symposium on Inter-University cooperation between Mekelle University & the Flemish Universities/VLIR 20-24, September, 2004, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
  
• Ethiopian Higher Education: Does it need transformation to be an active participant in human development? Paper presented on the National Conference on "Quality of Higher Education", IER-AAU, October 15-16, 2004, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Higher Education is important to produce the human resource and generate relevant knowledge and skills that are required for socio-economic development of a country and to ensure global competitiveness. Ethiopia's recent experience in expanding access to higher education and the efforts being made to transform the sector has presented unique opportunities and challenges. The development accomplishments and current and future challenges of massification of higher education and research in Ethiopia and globally, vis-à-vis quality, equity, private provision and re-aligning for better delivery to national strategic development goals, would be analyzed. Such a study centering on focused engagement with professionals from other parts of the world and critical assessment of the higher education system in Ethiopia will result in data and alternative options that inform policy and decision making at different levels.

The sharing of the unique experience and the collaborative research with professionals, as well as debates and dialogues with colleagues from other countries would contribute to the development of constructive strategies addressing the challenges of higher education in the 21st century. The increasingly complex issues of higher education within the Ethiopian and global perspectives would be critically examined during the study. The research undertakings will have a significant contribution to the development of my professional and leadership capacity, the qualitative and quantitative development of the higher education sector in Ethiopia and in fostering global partnership and development of collaborative activities for the future of higher education.