At the international conference ‘The role of Higher Education in Development’, 23 and 24 July in Addis Ababa, the Minister of Education of Ethiopia, H.E. Shiferaw Shigutie, stressed the 
importance of investing in higher education as a means to build-up the skilled labour force needed for the development of the country, referring to the government ambition to become a middle-income country by 2025.
As stated by the Director General of the Education Strategy Centre (ESC, Ethiopia), Dr. Aklilu Hailemichael, the University Leadership and Management Capacity Development (ULMCD) project, funded by the Netherlands government through EP-Nuffic, has contributed a great deal to address leadership-related challenges within Ethiopian higher education. The ULMCD project has enabled his centre to:
- Contribute to capacity development of more than 800 of leaders and managers at all levels ranging from board members to presidents and department heads of 13 second generation public universities;
- Use many of the research findings and recommendations to inform national policy and future directions for the entire higher education sector, beyond these 13 universities, for instance on gender equality in decision making positions, quality and relevance of research, entrepreneurship education, and on governance, leadership and staff development;
- Institutionalize project outcomes by sustaining the gains made in leadership capacity building;
- Form new local and international partnerships;
- Create platforms for networking and experience-sharing among Ethiopian universities.
This and more is reflected in a brochure and in the compendium of nine Policy Briefs.
The conference, being organized at the end of the project period explored the role of higher education in development with the aim of improving education, research and community service in the context of developing countries like Ethiopia. The interest for the conference has been overwhelming with more than 80 relevant abstracts submitted although the program only allowed 27 paper presentations. With around 130 participants representing the Ethiopian higher education sector and key international partners sharing new insights and lessons learned, the conference can be seen as a success. The Advisor of the EP-Nuffic Board of Directors, present at the conference, expressed his compliments and gratitude for organising a very rewarding and interesting conference, and was positive about how the various partners have operated and collaborated over the last years.
The main message that came out of the conference was that Ethiopia is rewarded for its efforts to increase drastically the access to education, should continue with these efforts, and that at the same time many efforts are needed to improve the quality of the higher education in all aspects for which a variety of recommendations have been made.
Specifically mentioned are among others more attention for continuous learning of faculty and introducing an incentive system, drastically improve the position of female faculty and leadership with an affirmative policy that aims at equal outcomes, improve the support system for and quality assurance of private institutions, enhance university – industry relations, and cautiously stimulate differentiation among universities.
Last, regarding the continuous need for university leadership and management capacity development, the conference concluded that supporting training centres would be needed on national, cluster and institutional level. Centres that could built on the experience gained and training manuals produced in the project.
Click here for the conference project brochure.
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