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ETHIOPIA
The launch of an International Higher Education (IHE) policy by the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE) is expected to support focused internationalization efforts in the coming years.
MoSHE’s decision to develop a national policy for international higher education is part of reforms aimed at transforming the sector. Individual institutions are encouraged to participate and urgently design their own internationalization policies and strategies in accordance with the broader directions set out in national policy.
Ethiopia’s international higher education policy can be seen as a remarkable advance in encouraging informed and planned movements in all spheres of internationalization. It can also serve as an example for other countries in the developing world who wish to emulate the policy development process.
Internationalization efforts have been fragmented for too long and have occurred in the absence of clear national and institutional guidance. Hence the need to formulate policies at the national level on the internationalization of higher education has been debated for quite some time.
Despite its limitations and paradoxes, internationalization remains a central aspect of higher education that many countries around the world cannot afford to ignore. Consequently, many systems and institutions recognize the critical impact of internationalization in shaping their missions, strategic planning, and operational practices and regard it as a concept and an operational agenda.
Successful internationalization efforts are often accompanied by carefully crafted policies and strategies at the national, sectoral, and institutional levels. However, contrary to what is often thought, the internationalization of higher education as a coordinated engagement incorporating organized policies, strategies and practices is a phenomenon that has only recently begun to spread throughout the world.
The situation is more pronounced in developing countries where, despite the growing interest in being part of the global movement towards the internationalization of higher education, few are said to be guided by policies and strategies developed at the national and institutional levels.
Past and present
International higher education in Ethiopia has a long history. Its growth and development have been similar to the internationalization patterns worldwide and particularly in developing countries. The roots of internationalization in Ethiopia date back to the arrival of missionaries to the country in the 19th century.
Having identified education as a useful tool, missionaries in Ethiopia were actively involved in opening schools and sending promising students abroad half a century before the first modern school was established in 1908. The influence of foreign powers in the The modern educational system later continued with the opening of schools that incorporated various features of internationalization.
Ethiopian institutions of higher education have also participated in internationalization activities since their inception. Over the years, the values of internationalization have been increasingly recognized as an important undertaking to promote teaching and research collaborations, mobilization of international resources, improvement of academic quality and standards, and lately , as a source of additional institutional income generation.
The establishment and management of Ethiopian higher education institutions over the past seven decades have exhibited several characteristics of internationalization, including the recruitment of international professors, the adoption of a foreign language (English) as the medium of instruction, the use of educational materials foreigners, participation in international research projects and collaboration with foreign institutions.
Indeed, international higher education has been used as a capacity building tool in the various fields of the Ethiopian higher education system. This long-standing practice has been reinforced by the expansion and increasing complexity of the higher education sector since the late 1990s.
International higher education activities, such as academic mobility and research collaborations, are constantly becoming important manifestations of the system. Ethiopia’s research and higher education institutions have been at the forefront in undertaking institutional capacity building efforts through various forms of internationalization.
Internationalization joins the main policy development process
MoSHE’s decision to develop a national policy on IHE is part of the higher education reform it is undertaking with a view to transforming the sector.
In addition to changing the internationalization process from an unintended initiative to a deliberate one, the policy aims to assist Ethiopia’s efforts to become a middle-income country through rapid industrialization, technological development, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This will require capacity-building efforts in accordance with international standards and the production of a well-trained and equipped workforce that meets the increasing needs of the country.
The aspirations articulated in the new policy are drawn primarily from existing national and sectoral policies, such as Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan II (2016), its Education Sector Development Program V (2015), the Proclamation of Higher Education ( 2019) and the MoSHE Ten-Year Plan. Strategic Plan (2020-2030), but also seek to position the Ethiopian higher education system as a microcosm of global higher education.
To this end, the policy vision statement is worded as “to see the Ethiopian higher education sector reach its full potential to serve the national interest and become a regionally and globally competitive system through a multidimensional and high-level approach. quality for internationalization ”.
The policy provides a broader framework within which the internationalization of higher education in Ethiopia will be planned, supported, directed and realized. Identify the principles and foundations on which internationalization efforts in Ethiopia are based. This is an indication that with the new policy framework, the Ethiopian higher education sector is poised to move gradually towards a formal endorsement of international higher education and a more coordinated direction.
It is believed that the policy will help not only to establish the national framework to improve current initiatives, but also to mainstream internationalization throughout the higher education sector by creating the necessary synergy between institutional, national, regional strategies and procedures. and worldwide. It provides a broader context for operational directions by identifying critical policy issues and practices to be considered at the national, regional and global levels.
Critical institutional plans
Consequently, higher education institutions are expected to follow suit by designing institutional policies and operational frameworks to actively participate in and benefit from various modes of internationalization activities.
Plans and activities promoting the internationalization of higher education in Ethiopia are expected to be designed and executed along the lines broadly set out in this particular policy document. But for this to happen, institutions must urgently design their own policies and strategies in accordance with the broader directions set out in national politics.
Another encouraging development in this line has been the creation of a consortium of directors of internationalization offices in public universities. Responsible to the ministry, this consortium aims to share experiences and align efforts to achieve internationalization objectives.
It is hoped that the current movement towards the adoption of international higher education as a strategic direction can provide the solutions necessary to maximize the benefits of internationalization and seize new opportunities if pursued with a strengthened approach and a coherent set of operational plans across the levels.
Such efforts will not only transform hitherto poorly coordinated and fragmented activities into a coherent structure, but will also elevate the internationalization of the Ethiopian higher education sector to a more strategic position in the years to come.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the success of the plans and the expected results of the policy framework depend on what can be implemented in practice at the national and institutional levels.
