Higher Education in Ethiopia: A Report on Haile Selassie I University

Ethiopia’s Asian Options: A Collage of African and Asian Entanglements

“…For decades, higher education has played a prominent role in channelling the Ethiopian government’s modernisation projects and it was, from the beginning, crucial to Ethiopia’s global interconnectedness. Secular higher education was established in Ethiopia during Haile Selassie’s reign when Ethiopia’s first university was founded in Addis Ababa in 1950 (Kehoe 1962, 475). In 1954, the University College Addis Ababa was expanded into a four-year college and, in 1961, Haile Selassie I University was inaugurated.…”

“…In 1954, the University College Addis Ababa was expanded into a four-year college and, in 1961, Haile Selassie I University was inaugurated. By that time the university already employed a significant number of internationally recruited staff—70 lecturers were expatriates while just over 20 were Ethiopian—and the university was then administered under contract from the University of Utah (Kehoe 1962, 475–78). Before Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974, a few specialised colleges had also been opened in other towns.…”