Consolidation of University Courses Marks Next Phase of Ethiopia’s Education Reform

As part of ongoing reforms to higher education, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education recently announced the merging of 147 university programs into 54. The Ministry put forth a 67 percent maximum similarity rate across courses, which it said provided sufficient overlap to justify consolidating undergraduate programs nationwide. Officials cited bloated costs, redundant coursework, and misalignment with labor market realities as central reasons for the overhaul after three years of community engagement.

Adnew Erbelo, Higher Education Curriculum and Programs Expert at the Ministry, emphasized that efficient use of academic resources was at the heart of the reform. He recalled years of complaints from graduates who found inconsistencies between the names of their degrees and the requirements listed in job vacancies.

“The goal is to align the curriculum taught at universities with the needs of the job market,” Adnew told Shega.

The Ministry says it will not leave institutions completely to their devices. Plans for monitoring and technical assistance are under way to ensure universities can implement the changes effectively.

Engineering, a field that has traditionally attracted many of Ethiopia’s top high school graduates, is among the disciplines undergoing reform.

Surafel Wondemagegn, a fifth-year electrical and computer engineering student at Addis Ababa University (AAU), sees the merger as a step forward. He said he has watched older classmates struggle to find work because they specialized too narrowly in one stream of electrical engineering, leaving them underprepared for jobs that required computer engineering skills.

“In terms of employability, the merger provides students with a skills portfolio that enhances their job prospects,” Surafel told Shega.

Yet optimism is not universal. Some students fear the merger could translate into additional coursework at a time when academic hurdles are already high. Exit exams, introduced four years ago for graduating students, have had poor results, with some departments unable to graduate a single candidate.

Asegid Melash, who recently earned a degree in public administration and development management at AAU, is not convinced the merger will produce the intended benefits. He noted that public administration graduates often find themselves at a disadvantage in the private sector, where their degree is considered less relevant.

“Providing a public administration program without incorporating its development aspect is not advantageous for students when it comes to employment,” Asegid told Shega.

He argued that the reform would only succeed if programs were merged in ways that preserved specialized strengths while improving graduates’ employability.

The current consolidation effort arrives after decades of expansion. In the early 1990s, Ethiopian universities began multiplying their programs, often in specialized areas, to match national development priorities in a state-led economy. Universities, strapped for cash, rarely resisted because a higher number of programs often meant larger budget allocations from the Ministry of Finance.

Under the new system, universities retain flexibility in how they implement the reform. Institutions can design their own curricula and adapt merger requirements to match their strengths and resources. After approval by internal senates, the designs must be accredited by the Education and Training Quality Authority before they can be put in place.

Veteran administrators believe this shift could enhance both efficiency and quality.

Kassa Michael (PhD), a professor in AAU’s Department of Education, points to linguistics as an example of redundancy. Currently, universities run separate programs for sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and two other subfields, even though the core coursework overlaps.

“The entire coursework can be handled under a single undergraduate program with a few additional modules,” Kassa told Shega.

He added that the change would improve research, peer-to-peer learning, and professional development while curbing duplication. For years, universities have spread themselves thin by offering too many programs, a practice that led to significant waste of resources.

“Reviewing the curriculum to align with international and national standards is a lengthy process, and implementation requires time,” Kassa said.

The financial pressures facing Ethiopia’s universities give the reform added urgency. As the government has pursued tighter fiscal and monetary policies in recent years, institutions that once relied almost entirely on federal budgets have found themselves squeezed. Last year, the daily cafeteria allocation of 22 birr per student became a flashpoint, sparking backlash until the government nearly tripled the allowance.

Calls for greater university autonomy, first voiced at AAU and now spreading across campuses, provide the backdrop for the new merger plan. Advocates of autonomy argue that efficiency-minded reforms are not only necessary but overdue.

The Ministry has said the mergers will take effect in the pace at which the universities manage to conduct their own assessments. If the plan succeeds, it could reshape higher education in Ethiopia by cutting costs, aligning programs with labor needs, and helping students graduate with degrees that carry weight in the job market.