Title:
Swimming against the tide of an ethnicised HE system
Authors:
Wondwosen Tamrat
Associate professor and founder-president of St Mary’s University, Ethiopia
&
Damtew Teferra
Professor of higher education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Published:
University World News, 28 July 2022
From the article:
Ethiopia is a country with more than 80 ethnic groups. The formation of its ethnically based federation system post-1991 has led to the restructuring of the country into 10 regional state and two city administrations.
Despite the benefits protagonists ascribed to such a system, Ethiopia has been facing unprecedented challenges in its socio-political sphere as a result of its ethnocentric federalism.
Not surprisingly, these challenges come to the fore in every sector, including in its 70-year-old higher education system and the 50 public universities currently operating across the country.