Emerging Models of Quality, Relevance and Standard in Ethiopia’s Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

In 2003 the Ethiopian Government introduced a higher education proclamation(Federal Republic Of Ethiopia:2003), establishing wide ranging reforms to the higher education system and setting up key agencies to guide and oversee the sector, including The Ethiopian Education strategy Institute and the quality and relevance assurance Agency. The reforms introduces elements of a quasi-market in higher education: students sharing the costs of higher education and therefore moving into a customer-like relationship with higher education institutions; the expansion of private higher education; the move away from state funding of public higher education institutions through the encouragement of income generation activity. They also enabled a move from extreme centralization towards institutional autonomy. Such autonomy and the creation of quasi-market depends upon ‘customers’ (and other stakeholders such as the Government) being assured of the quality of the ‘product’ offered (whether education, consultancy or applied research). Without that assurance, the reforms would not meet the country’s development agenda. This paper reports on the extent that appropriate quality assurance practices are presently in existence in Ethiopia and proposes an emerging model of quality and standards.