About MU

History of Mekelle University

Mekelle University is found at the town of Mekelle in Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia, at a
distance of 783 Kilometers from the Ethiopian capital.

The merger the two former colleges: Mekelle Business College and Mekelle University College
established the University in May 2000 by the Government of Ethiopia (Council of Ministers,
Regulations No. 61/1999 of Article 3) as an autonomous higher education institution. The two
colleges have their own historical developments after beginning from scratch, and have also
experienced exhausting ascends and descends, with voluminous relocations from place to place

Towards a University
The quality, standard and relevance of education, research and consultancy services delivered by
both colleges to the society enabled the two Colleges to become very popular in the country and
abroad in short period of time.

Even though the management of the two colleges was officially independent, initiatives were
taken by both institutions to work closely, with a vision of creating a full-fledged University.
Having a common Board of Governors played a significant role for the establishment of Mekelle
University and then to achieve rapid growth after its official inauguration in May 2000. At
present, the University has seven colleges: Business and Economics, Dryland Agriculture and
Natural Resources, Law and Governance, Social Sciences and Languages, Veterinary Madicine,
Natural and Computational Sciences and Health Sciences; and eight institutes: Institute of
Pedagogical Sciences, Institute of Paleoenvironment and Heritage Conservation, Ethiopian
Institute of Technology-Mekelle, Institute of Water and Environment, Institute of Climate and
Society, Institute of Gender, Environment and Development Studies, and Institute of Geo-
Information and Earth Observation Sciences.

At present MU hosts over 31,000 students in the regular, continuing education programme and
summer, evening, distance education and in-service programs in both undergraduate and
graduate programmes.
Mekelle University is thus now a government-funded higher institution with an international
reputation for teaching and research and with collaborative understanding with national and
international sister institutions. Since its establishment, it has proved to be one of the fastest
growing Universities in Ethiopia. The fundamental elements of the University's mission are
teaching, research and consultancy. Thus, its ultimate goal is to pursue standards of excellence in
teaching, research and community service for the betterment of the society