COMMON COURSES FOR

ETHIOPIAN HLIS

May 2019
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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 Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Procedures Used for the identification of common courses ............................................................. 9

2.1. Rationale for providing common courses ............................................................................... 10

2.2. Proposed common courses for first year students .................................................................. 13

2.3 Course objectives and descriptions for the proposed courses ............................................. 14

3. Actors and their Roles .................................................................................................................... 24

3.1. Ministry of Science and Higher education............................................................................... 24

3.2. Curriculum Revision Team ...................................................................................................... 24

3.3. University Presidents ............................................................................................................. 25

3.4. Subject Specialists .................................................................................................................. 25

References ............................................................................................................................................ 26

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 1. Introduction

Higher Education in Ethiopia has a long history. The best example to justify this statement is the
beginning of Yared Music School which was established in the 5th century. One of the strong
justifications to this bold conclusion is that the purpose of the school was to train highly qualified
priests that are well trained to run religious music and dancing. Saint Yared’s invention is still
practiced in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The musical Nota developed by St. Yared is still
being taught in Ethiopian schools and is being practiced in higher level trainings of the Ethiopian
Orthodox church (Alemayehu & Solomon, 2017).

Although Ethiopia possesses a 1,700 years of tradition of elite education linked to Orthodox
Church, secular higher education was initiated only in 1950 with the founding of the University
College of Addis Ababa (Girma, 1967). The University College had less than 1,000 students and
less than 50 teachers in the late 50's, where in most of the teachers were foreigners.

During the following two decades, half of dozens of specialized technical colleges were
established to address training needs in agriculture, engineering, public health and teacher
education. They include the college of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, College of Engineering
at Addis Ababa, Institute of Building Technology, Gondar Public Health College, Theology of
Holly Trinity and Kotebe College of Teacher Education. With the former Soviet Union
assistance, Ethiopia established its first Polytechnique Institute at Bahir Dar in 1960s. It was
giving training in Agro mechanics, Industrial Chemistry, Electricity, Textile Technology and
Wood Technology. In 1961 most colleges were reorganized under Hailleselassie I University (
Marew, 2000).

These institutions hosted an educational culture that was heavily influenced by its long informal
association with Orthodox Church (Teshome, 1990). In their academic organization, they were
somewhat more American, and less British, than in the former colonies of East Africa.
Strikingly, tertiary enrollment totaled only 4,500 in 1970 out of the national population of 34
Million. The resulting tertiary enrollment ratio of 0.2% was among the very lowest in the world.
The skilled human resource available to generate and guide development in one of Africa’s

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largest and poorest countries was therefore very small in relation to the economy of the task
(Pankhurst et al, 1990).

The nation’s new higher education institutions strived, with considerable early success, to
maintain international standards, but the cost was high, with wastage rates approaching 40% in
the late 1960s (Teshome, 1990). Awareness of the need for reform began to grow as
demonstrated by the 1964 decision to require one year of community service of university
students prior to graduation. But these incipient reforms were shortened by political events. In
1974, a socialist military coup overthrew the government of Emperor Hailesellassie and
established a regime known as Derge. The same year the name of the university was changed to
Addis Ababa University (AAU). Immediately after claiming power, the Derge adopted many of
the radical ideas espoused by the university community such as land reform, nationalization of
industries, linguistic independence, creation of a national communist party, rural service for
university students which ultimately alienated many students from academics (Teshome, 1979).
In 1977 the revolutionary government issued Higher Education Proclamation No. 109/77. In this
proclamation a new organization of higher education including the establishment of the
Commission for Higher Education were entertained. This document also outlined the main
objectives of higher education to be
• To train individuals for high level positions in accordance with the national plan of
development and to provide medium-level personnel to meet the immediate needs of the
economy.
• To improve the quality of education.
• Strengthen and expand tertiary level institutions.
• Establish new research and training centers and.
• To contribute to a better standard of living among the masses by developing science,
technology, the Arts and the Literature.

Based on the framework of the proclamation, the colleges were reoriented to reflect the new
regime’s objectives and modified admission criteria to benefit students from small town, rural
areas, students of poor family, returnee of military service, students of military family and to
some degree to female students. This was the first attempt of the Derge regime to provide equity

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in education. It is because such admission criterion helps to uphold class, gender, and rural urban
equity in access to higher education.

Higher education expanded in the period after 1975. A post graduate studies program was
established in 1978 which had an enrollment of 246 students in 1982/83, of which 15 were
women. Graduate programs were offered in several fields, including engineering, natural
sciences, agriculture, social sciences, and medicine. To support the training given in these fields
different research institutes were established. Addis Ababa University and its satellite colleges
like Bahir Dar Teachers College provided an evening extension program offering courses in
many fields. The extension programs had opened a great opportunity for those who did not get
access to higher education through matriculation and for those who needed to upgrade their
qualification through on job training. The college of agriculture at Alemaya, which was part of
Addis Ababa University, was granted independent university status in 1985 (Teshome, 1997 and
Teshome 2004).

Other junior colleges trained middle level man power in several fields. These include Cottebe
College of Teacher Education, Municipality College and Junior College of Commerce, all in the
capital. Other outside of Addis Ababa constitutes Junior Colleges of Agriculture in Ambo,
Awassa and Jimma, Arbaminch Water Technology Institute, Institute of Health Assistances in
Debreziet, Wondogenet College of Forestry, and Jimma Health Sciences Institute. Due to
shortage of colleges and universities in the country, the competition for admission was so
intense. The cutoff point of university admission was changing year after year (Marew, 2000).
Three notable outcomes followed over the following two decades. Intellectual life emaciated on
campuses, academic brain drain increased and the country’s education system became largely cut
off from the western world (Ibid).

As 20th century drew to a close, Ethiopia found itself with a higher education system that was
regimented in its management, conservative in its intellectual orientation, short of experienced
doctorates among academic staff, concerned about declining of quality of education, weak in its
research out puts, limited in its autonomy, and weakly connected to the currents of the

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international higher education community. The reform pressures that had began to build in the
1960’s only to be suppressed by the Derge in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Only 15% of those who complete high school education are admitted to higher education each
year. When EPRDF came to power in 1991, the majority of higher education institutions were
either closed because some of them were occupied by the then freedom fighters and students of
some higher education institutions were sent to different military camps for military training by
the Derge regime.

In 1999 enrollments reached 5,154 and 7,199 in diploma and degree programs respectively.
There were a total of 27,345 regular students in the institutions of higher learning in 1998-99
academic years. Of these, 16% were females. The number of graduates in the year 1999 was
6111; of these 14% were women. The rate of enrollment and graduation of female students was
still at low level. Until 2000, there were only two universities. In 2002, 6 additional universities
were established (MOE, 2003).

The Ethiopian Education Sector Development II (2002) set out a vision for higher education’s
role and its aim. The aim of higher education was formulated to provide good quality higher
education in large number, with diminishing dependence on public resources in the longer terms.
Thus, in its main aim the reform program links the issue of quality, the context of expansion and
greater market awareness. Ethiopian higher education is indeed expanded rapidly. From 1996-
2003 undergraduate enrollments doubled to 18000 in public sector higher education institutions
and tripled overall.

The government had exerted strong pressure on universities to respond to the growing demand of
higher education in the country. One of the strategies to expand higher education was opening
graduate programs in various fields. Consequently, graduate programs were established in eight
universities, Addis Ababa, Alemaya, Bahir Dar, Mekele, Gondor, Jima, Arbaminch, Hawasa.
Despite such attempts, however, there was a difference of pace between the way universities
react to the government’s intention to expand graduate programs and that of the government. To
tackle this problem, the government has set a different strategy. That is, the Ethiopian
government has signed an agreement with Indian Universities (IIT and Delhi University) and

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UNISA, South Africa to train 2000 Ph.D and 10000 M.A/M.Sc trainees in information
technology, sciences and business fields through teleconference mode of delivery (Abiy, 2005).
The years from 1999-2007 are characterized by high expansion of higher education in terms of
student enrollment, fields of study, graduate programs in the already established universities by
adding additional infrastructure, libraries, laboratories, dormitories, classrooms sport fields and
computer centers and establishing additional Thirteen new universities in the different regions of
the country. The new universities include Debre Markos, Axum, Debre Berhan, Semera, Meda
Wallabu, Wollo, Wolaita Sodo, Dirie Dawa, Dilla, Wollega, Jijiga, despite these efforts,
participation remains low at 2% of school leavers. Currently, there are 34 public universities and
many other private university colleges.

As to Teshome (2004), generally, the higher education of the current government has passed
through three major stages. They include:
1. Policy and strategy adaptation, especially the legal framework
2. Rehabilitation and expansion of facilities
3. Improvement and revitalization of the system
The first of these stages focuses on setting a working higher education proclamation. As a result,
the Higher Education Proclamation 351/2003 was announced. The second stage was meant to the
construction of building for classrooms, dormitories, libraries, laboratories, computer centers, etc
and other educational facilities. The third stage was assuring the quality of higher education
training and education by developing quality assurance system.

Expansion of Facilities
In 1991 there were only two universities in the country. Currently there are 50 public universities
and many other private universities. The establishment of universities demanded huge sum of
money, training qualified human resource and fulfilling the necessary facilities. The expansion
of higher education was challenged with the absence of adequate classrooms, laboratories,
dormitories, dining rooms and other facilities. One of the aggressive measures the government
has taken was allocating a very huge some of budget for expansion.

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Higher Education Quality Assurance
The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) is an autonomous agency
established through the Higher Education Proclamation (351/2003) as one of the key agencies
responsible for guiding and regulating the higher education sector in Ethiopia. The mission of
HERQA is to help ensure high quality and relevant higher education system in the country. The
agency is mandated to report on the relevance and quality of higher education offered by all
higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ethiopia. One of the central roles of HERQA is to
encourage and assist the growth of an organizational culture in Ethiopian higher education that
values quality and is committed to continuous improvement (HERQUA, 2007).

To sum up, the major driving forces of the reform can be summarized into three. There is
increase in students’ number, more institutional autonomy and greater market focus on quality.
To realize these objectives the reform follows three major steps. They are setting legal
framework, fulfilling the prerequisites and setting the quality assurance mechanisms.

The three years undergraduate program is highly criticized for the quality of training given due
to the duration of the training. The language ability of both higher education instructors and
students is believed to be deteriorating from time to time. Students are assessed to have low level
of critical thinking and creative abilities (Alemayehu, 2014). To overcome this problem, the
Ministry of Education has designed language training for English language teachers of high
school and higher education (Alemayehu & Solomon, 2017). Among othe4rs, the graduate
unemployment has now become a serious political agenda in the country. Apart from mismatch
between the economic development to accommodate university graduates and the number of
university graduates, lack of competency of graduates is believed to be one of the causes for
unemployment.

To overcome such challenges the government has conducted a nation a wide study to design the
education sector roadmap. One of the suggestions of the study is to establish the ministry that is
responsible for higher learning institutions. Accordingly Ministry of Science and Higher
Education (MoSHE) was established with Proclamation No. 1097/2011. After establishment,
MoSHE has identified the critical findings of the roadmap and started to act. One of the major

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challenges of higher education as indicated in the roadmap in Ethiopia is found to be curriculum
relevance.

The Ethiopian Education curriculum could not properly address national unity among graduates,
critical thinking, important non cognitive skills, employability skills, communication skills,
global outlook, and digital literacy to cite few. To alleviate such problems MoSHE has organized
the curriculum revision team from various universities and started to identify common courses
that all first year higher education institutions should take to fill the existing gaps among
students.

2. Procedures Used for the identification of common courses

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has organized the curriculum revision team from
universities that have long years of teaching and research experience in education and curriculum
studies to develop initial document on the common courses that will be given for all first year
students of Ethiopian Hi9gher Education institutions. The universities were given responsibilities
to select experienced staff to be part of the curriculum revision team. Once the curriculum
revision team was organized, higher officials from Ministry of Science and Higher Education
(MoSHE) provided orientation about the major findings and possible recommendations of the
Ethiopian Education Roadmap study document that necessitated the curriculum revision of
higher education.

After taking the responsibility from MoSHE, the curriculum revision team made discussions to
have common understanding about the relevance and the depth of the task assigned to the team.
The first task of the team was to solicit international experience from the literature about nature
of common courses, the Ethiopian education sector roadmap study document and collected data
from their respective universities about the nature of common courses. Based on the literature,
education sector roadmap study document and the data gathered, the team members have
developed the rationale for the provision of common courses for first year students of Ethiopian
Higher Education.

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2.1. Rationale for providing common courses

The rationale for introducing the common courses largely emanates from the following problems
and suggested ideas:

– Systemic reforms proposed and recommended by the Ethiopian Education

Roadmap study document
– International and global demand
– Problems of relevance and quality of the curricula of HEIs
– Nation-wide discussion and inputs on the proposed reforms of Ethiopia’s
Education Roadmap study document
– Action is required to implement the proposed reforms.

Problems related to curriculum

Higher education curricula and programs have not done enough in terms of providing sufficient
and relevant knowledge to students of the physical setting as well as the socio-economic, cultural
and political environments of Ethiopia. There has been serious limitation, in particular, in terms
of creating awareness of both the historical basis as well as the values of building and promoting
national unity in an environment that recognizes and values diversity and lack of relevance to the
present global context.

Recommendations related to curricula:

• The curricula /program of HEIs have to be reformed in ways that would enhance the
employability of graduates as well as their capacity for entrepreneurship and work
creation;
• The curricula /program of HEIs have to be those that enhance the capacity of graduates to
identify and sift through information critically and communicate with others effectively;
• The curricula /program of should have components that highlight the essentials of
Ethiopian geography, society, cultures as well as the dynamic interrelationship of people
and natural environments over time.

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Problems Related to Graduates

• Graduates of Ethiopian HEIs have limited skills required for employment in a

dynamically changing and evolving workplace;
• Graduates of Ethiopian HEIs have limited capacity to adapt to new life situations through
lifelong learning and associated life skills;
• Graduates of Ethiopian HEIs have limited knowledge and understanding of historical and
geo-political foundations of contemporary Ethiopia as well as the broader continental and
global forces and structures that may constrain or magnify the role of their country.

Recommendations Related to graduates:

• The Roadmap study document makes an emphatic point to the effect that that “[we] need
to produce university graduates with balanced … cognitive and non-cognitive skills.
Non-cognitive skills include higher order thinking skills such as critical thinking skills,
creativity, and problem solving skills. ” But non-cognitive skills also include lifelong
skills that cultivate and enable leadership, communication, collaboration, negotiation and
adaptability to new situations.
• University graduates should also have much improved levels of computer literacy,
information management skills and higher capability in written and oral forms of
communication.
After agreeing upon the reasons why common courses are required to be given to all first year
students, the team members have gone back to their universities and collected data to identify
relevant common courses that are presumed to fill the gaps identified in the education roadmap
study document.

The team members have analyzed the international experience, the data collected from university
staff and the available practice of the provision of common courses in the universities. After the
analysis is made,, all the curriculum revision team members come with list of common courses.

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International Experience
Table 1: The following table shows first year common courses offered in different
universities of the world.
S.No Country University Courses
1 America Boston College American history, College
Algebra, and Writing English
2 Canada McGill Canadian Studies, Linguistics,
Math, Philosophy, Economics,
Geography, Psychology,
Sociology and Political Science
3 China Peking Biology, Computer Science,
Language courses, Conversation,
Math, Philosophy and Economics
4 America Texas university English Composition, Writing
across the curriculum, College
Algebra, Economics, political
Science, History, Physical
geography,
physical/Biological Science

As the data in Table one portrays, the practices of universities in different countries are different.
However, some courses are commonly emphasized in most universities, such as, History,
Geography, English, Philosophy, Economics and Mathematics.

The team members have presented all the lists of common courses they identified and
discussions were made about the relevance of the suggested courses in terms of the criteria to
select common courses, the rationale developed, the results of the data collected from
universities and the international experience.

The series of discussions made by the curriculum revision team members have helped them to
get insight not only about the nature of the common courses but also to examine what these
common courses should constitute and the way they should be organized.

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Next, MoSHE has organized the discussion forum that involves experienced staff from different
universities, subject specialists, higher officials from MoSHE and the curriculum revision team.
This discussion forum has helped the team members to clearly identify the competencies that
each common course is expected to develop and the course description.

After making amendments based on the comments forwarded in the previous discussion forums.
MoSHE has organized consultative meeting that involves Board Members of Public and Private
Universities, Presidents and Vice Presidents of Public and Private Universities, subject
specialists from different universities and the curriculum revision team members. The curriculum
revision team members have presented to the participants about the rationale of developing
common courses for first year students of the Ethiopian Higher education. After the presentation,
the participants were made to be organized in to four groups for discussion. The discussion
results of the four groups were presented to the larger audience. The team members have
elaborated about the questions and comments given by the participants. Important comments
forwarded by the participants were summarized by the team members for discussion.

Another discussion meeting was called by MoSHE to seriously address the comments suggested
by University board members, presidents, vice presidents and subject specialists. Finally, the
curriculum revision team members have incorporated the comments and developed the list of
common courses to be given to all first year students of Ethiopian Higher education Institutions.
Accordingly, the proposed common courses are listed below:

2.2. Proposed common courses for first year students

Table 2: First year Common Courses by Semester

No. Semester I No. Semester II

1 Introduction to Emerging Technologies 1 History of Ethiopia and the Horn
–I
2 Geography of Ethiopia and the Horn 2 Economics and Entrepreneurship

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 3 Communicative English – I
4 General Psychology and Life Skills
5 Logic and Critical Thinking
6 Mathematics for Social Sciences /or for
Natural Sciences
3 Communicative English– II
4 Introduction to Emerging
Technologies – II
5 Global Issues and International
Relations
6 Health and Fitness

Note: This proposed common courses are not the final list and complete. The final list of
common courses for all first year students will be developed after discussions are made by all
universities staff and comments are seriously consider to decide on the nature of common
courses.

2.3 Course objectives and descriptions for the proposed courses

Table 3: Course objectives and course descriptions

Course Name General Objective Description
Emerging After completing the course, the students will be able to: This course will explore current breakthrough
Technology I technologies in the areas of Artificial
- Understand 21st century emerging technologies
Intelligence, Internet of Things and
pertaining to Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Augmented Reality that have emerged over
Internet of Things (IOT) and Augmented the past few years. Besides helping learners
Reality (AR) become literate in emerging technologies, the
- Know the uses and applications of emerging course will prepare them to use technology in
technologies in their respective professional their respective professional preparations.
areas

History of After completing the course, the students will be able to: - This course covers the cultural, economic,
Ethiopia and - understand Ethiopia’s past so as to understand religious, art, political and social history of
the Horn the present and shape the future Ethiopia. It takes us closer to happenings and

- learn a sense of national feeling and patriotism events in the past we can know about and
learn how things have changed ever since, the
from the history of forefathers and foremothers

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 in the nation fore figures and personalities who helped
- understand history as a base for shaping and change the scenario, and how communities,
bettering of the future rather than as source of nations and the world that we live in has
changed over time and its implication for the
hatred and conflict
history of Ethiopia. The course will also
covers how the economic, art, social, cultural
and political experiences of the past are
interwoven the making of the current
Ethiopia.
Economics After completing the course, the students will be able to: In this course students will be introduced with
and the broad range of economic concepts,
- understand fundamental concepts in economics
Entrepreneur theories and analytical techniques. Also,
- know the application of economics in their
ship students will learn how to think analytically
everyday life about the economic forces that work in a
- Understand about economic decision making modern society. The course comprises of two
- understand the role of economic policies in parts; Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.
nations’ development In microeconomics segment of the course
- aware about the major economic policies in students will study economic decision-making
Ethiopia at micro or small level. The theory of
consumer behavior, the theory of the firm,
market demand and supply, factor market are
some of the topics to be covered in this part.
The primary objective of this section is to
help students understand the economic factors
and/or forces that underline the decision made
by economic agents on both the consumption
and production sides of the market. In the
second half of this course students will
explore the macro or big foundations of the
economy. The major topics of
macroeconomics include: the goods and
money markets, general equilibrium, inflation,
unemployment, exchange rate determination,
economic growth, business cycles and

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 international trade.

Geography After completing the course, the students will be able to: This course is aimed mainly at introducing
of Ethiopian Ethiopia as a country. Ethiopia’s resource
- Explain the effects of Ethiopia’s location on
and the Horn endowments that are acquired due to its
socio-economic, political and physical
location, relief and anthropogenic activities
environment. are the focus of the course. As a country
- Elaborate geologic events and resultant natural endowed with diverse physical and human
resources. resource base, the scope of this course extends
- Appreciate the relief and its effects on climate from its position on the planet earth to the
and livelihoods of its inhabitants. detailed discussion of resources within it.

- Examine vegetation and wildlife abundance Accordingly, location, geology and relief, and
climate of Ethiopia are included. Next, water
and distribution.
resources, fauna, flora, population,
- Describe primary economic activities practiced
agriculture, manufacturing industry,
in Ethiopia and their role in economic
transportation, trade, communication and
development.
tourism are also points of focus in this course.
- State the projections of secondary and tertiary
Moreover, Ethiopia in a globalized world can
economic activities on national economy. be analyzed in the perspectives of the pros
- Evaluate the promise of globalization to and cons of globalization on its population
Ethiopian economy and society.
and economy in particular and over all sectors
in general.

Communicati After completing the course, the students will be able to: Primarily this course is intended to develop
on English I and improve the English language skills of
- Express their ideas in various academic
students in academic contexts. It also focuses
contexts (in group/ pair discussion, public
at developing students’ communicative
speaking settings etc.) abilities in English in other interactions.
- Use various vocabulary learning strategies and Hence, this course will cover the specific
techniques language aspects described below.
- Write and present reports Developing basic functions of English
- Read various materials and make their own language skills: reading (scanning, skimming,

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 notes reading for details, critical reading,
- Identify the structure of oral and written summarizing, understanding the structure of a
discourses text); listening (listening for the gist, listening
for details, recognizing discourse markers,
- Attend their academic work at ease and with
noticing the structure of a lecture,
clarity
understanding speaker intentions, recognizing
signposting, attending and following skills);
writing (summarizing a text, writing
descriptive texts); speaking (introducing
oneself and others, interviewing, discussions,
stating and supporting propositions, stating
one’s opinions, organizing and taking part in a
debate, making a persuasive speech,
questioning); vocabulary (working out
meanings from context, synonyms, antonyms,
collocations, definitions); grammar (relative
clauses, modals, voice, conditionals, tense,
reported speech).

Communicati At the end of this course, students will be able to: • A Writing Proficiency course is one
on English II • Identify the structure and emphasis of academic in which the development of writing
lectures, skills is an integral part of the course
• Distinguish the different meaning levels in objectives. These courses provide
academic texts, students with opportunities to develop
• Interpret visuals like tables, charts, graphs etc in basic writing skills and learn the
academic texts, process of writing as practiced by a
• Conduct oral presentations in academic contexts particular academic discipline or
with confidence, profession.
• Debate logically about different issues with their • The course predominantly focuses on
friends, academic writing, presentation,
• Express their ideas effectively in various reports, and appraisal of academic
communicative contexts, discourses.
• Master skills of persuasive arguments • The course intends to introduce
• Describe visuals in paragraphs, students to the basic functions of

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 • Write clear reports and assignments in academic English in the areas stated below:
contexts, and note taking from lectures, identifying
• Summarize, review and critique academic texts. structure of lectures, identifying
focuses of lectures, discriminating
major and minor ideas in lectures,
distinguishing lecturers opinions from
academic facts, writing reports,
writing summaries and reviews in
academic writing, showing
probability and certainty in academic
reports, describing and reporting
visuals such as tables, graphs etc

Emerging After completing the course, the students will be able to: This course will explore current breakthrough
Technology technologies and disruptive innovations that
- acquire knowledge about various emerging
II have emerged over the past few years. There
technologies within the present society.
are many possibilities in regard to content
- aware of positive and negative outcomes that area for a course about emerging
arise from changing technological cultures. technologies. Major content areas for the
- utilize gained knowledge to research areas of course would be materials science,
emerging technology and develop hypotheses nanotechnology, biotechnology, synthetic
regarding future developments. biology.

- learn about new processes and materials and

develop a decreasing dependency upon natural
materials and knowledge of uses for new
materials.
- become aware of new career opportunities that
are emerging as a result of emerging
technologies.
- utilize acquired knowledge to research and
develop innovative ideas by putting knowledge
into practice

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General Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course This introductory course provides
Psychology students will be able to: students with an overview of the major
and Life Skill
• Identify the significant characteristics of each subfields of psychology as applied to
major psychological theory. adaptive skills. This course examines the

• Discuss the role of research in the development role of biological factors, environmental
of psychology as a science. factors and the interaction of nature and
nurture in determining behaviors and
• Explain the biological basis of behavior and
mental processes. Areas discussed
how it relates to cognition, motivation and
include: research in psychology,
emotion.
biological bases of behavior, sensation
• Explain the cognition of stress, resilience,
and perception, principles of learning,
adjustment and problem solving coping
memory, language & thought, motivation
mechanisms.
and emotion, intelligence, human
• Describe the major approaches to human development, theories of personality,
learning.
stress & coping, psychological disorder,
• Discuss the influences of the
social adjustments and treatments, and social
environment on the individual behavior and behavior. The course will focus on how to
mental processes. develop life skills based on the theories
• Apply knowledge of psychology to one’s own and principles of psychology where self-
life & to develop life skills. regulation, self-confidence, social
- competence, negotiation skills, decision
making skills and problem solving skills
shall be given due attention.
Logic and -
critical • Develop logical reasoning. discredit
Thinking mob mentality and emotionality, and
• Develop the skill to construct sound
argument and evaluate arguments.
• Differentiate and draw the right

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 conclusion and avoid the wrong.
• Prove a useful device in disclosing ill-
conceived policies, in political sphere
and distinguishes irrational from the
rational.
• Protect from being unduly influenced
by media, slanted “news”, stories and
politicians’ promise.
• Critically evaluate premises, evidence.
• Improve quality of reasoning, and
avoid social evils.
• Provides fundamental defense against
the prejudice and uncivilized attitudes
that threaten the foundation of our
society.
• Cultivate the habits of critical
thinking and develop sensitivity to the
clear and accurate use of language;
• To develop open mindedness and be
receptive of different ideas and
weighing people not by whom they are
or to which group they belong to,
rather their idea matters.
Math for Course objectives: Course objectives:
Social Upon completion of the course, successful students Upon completion of the course, successful
Science will be able to: students will be able to:
 understand propositional logic and set theory,  understand propositional logic and
 understand the fundamental properties of real set theory,
numbers,  understand the fundamental
 understand relations and functions and their properties of real numbers,
properties,  understand relations and functions
 solve equations and inequalities and their properties,
 understand the notion of matrices and  solve equations and inequalities

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 determinant.
 use matrices and determinant to solve system
of linear equations,
 apply linear programming to solve system of
linear inequalities,
 recognize basic concepts of discrete
mathematics,
 solve financial problems using mathematics of
finance,
 evaluate limits of elementary functions,
 understand the notion continuity of functions,
 evaluate derivatives of elementary functions,
 apply derivatives to solve problems,
 evaluate integrals of elementary functions,
 apply integrals to solve problems,
 solve application problems using
differentiations and integrations.
Math for Course objectives:
Natural Upon completion of the course, successful students students in the basic concepts and
Science will be able to:
 understand mathematical logic,
 apply logic in reasoning and mathematical
proofs,
 use quantifiers in open propositions,
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 understand the notion of matrices
and determinant.
 use matrices and determinant to
solve system of linear equations,
 apply linear programming to solve
system of linear inequalities,
 recognize basic concepts of
discrete mathematics,
 solve financial problems using
mathematics of finance,
 evaluate limits of elementary
functions,
 understand the notion continuity of
functions,
 evaluate derivatives of elementary
functions,
 apply derivatives to solve
problems,
 evaluate integrals of elementary
functions,
 apply integrals to solve problems,
 solve application problems using
differentiations and integrations.
The course intends to prepare science
materials from mathematics that
necessitate a good foundation to treat
basic mathematical models in science.
This course rigorously discusses the basic
concepts of logic and set theory, the real
  understand concepts of sets and set operations, and complex number systems,
 understand the fundamental properties of real mathematical induction, least upper bound
and complex numbers, and greatest lower bound, functions and
 find least upper bound and greatest lower types of functions, polynomial and
bound, rational functions, logarithmic and
 use mathematical induction in proofs, exponential functions, trigonometric
 write polar representation of complex functions, hyperbolic functions and their
numbers, graphs and analytic geometry.
 understand different types of functions, their
inverses and their graphs,
 find zero’s of some polynomials,
 identify various forms of conic sections and
derive their equations,
 use basic properties of logarithmic,
exponential, hyperbolic, and trigonometric
functions.
Health and At the end of the course the students will be able to:
This course provides the students with the
Fitness  Meet the standard of physical education at health related physical fitness and
college age fundamental skill of athletics, gymnastics
and ball games. Under the above topics,
 Keep their emotion stable the course deals with cardio respiratory
fitness, muscular strength and endurance,
 Improve intellectual abilities flexibility, basic of athletics, gymnastics,
football, volleyball, basketball and
 Pass effectively leisure time handball
 Carry out physical activity without undue
fatigued

 Overcome emergency situation

 Participant in different game

 Adapt easily game situation

Objectives and learning outcomes Globalization and International Relations

Globalization By the end of the course, students will be able to:
This is an introductory course designed to
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and • Critique common academic and policy
International arguments about global affairs
• Acquire the tools requires to begin their own
Relations
analyses.
• Gain basic knowledge of the major theories
and approaches in the discipline of
International Relations
• Develop the ability to critically evaluate and
apply such theories and approaches
• Examine the relevance of the theories of IR to
understand/explain the experience and interests
of actors in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
• Explore Ethiopia’s role in regional, continental
and global institutions and affairs
• Assess the roles major international and
regional institutions play in world politics
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equip students with the conceptual tools
and theoretical perspectives required to
understand and analyze complex problems
of International System. We live in an
exciting yet challenging period in history.
The world seems to dominantly progress
in constantly opposing directions. On the
one hand, because of globalization, the
world is getting smaller, moving faster,
and becoming interconnected in ways
never experienced before generating more
wealth, scientific innovation, and cross-
national cooperation. On the other hand,
the challenges of war, terror, trafficking,
arms trade, money laundering, disease,
poverty, environmental degradation still
generate an aura of uncertainty regarding
our epoch. As such, decisions made by
states, multinational corporations, terrorist
organizations, and non-governmental
organizations have a direct impact on our
life. The rapid barrage of information
emanating from cable news, the web,
social media and other forms of
communication has in part transformed
many people into “informed” global
citizens. However, while there may be a
multitude of individuals who know of the
events that are occurring in the world,
many still do not understand what is
happening. That is, there’s a huge
difference between being up to date on the
news (which is a good thing) and being
able to explain why events happened the
way they have happened; and what
consequences they may bring.
The major concepts that will be examined
in the study of international relations
include: state, nation, nationalism, power,
war and peace, global economy, trade,
identities and ideologies, regionalism,
foreign policy analysis, diplomacy, global
civil society, justice, international
organizations, international cooperation,
security, conflict, international law and
 human rights. By paying particular
attention to the ways in which different
actors interrelate at various levels, the
course attempts to improve students’
ability to analyze global events and
changes as well as help them develop the
skills needed for a rational individual to
successfully take part in an ever shifting,
dynamic, and complex world.

3. Actors and their Roles

3.1. Ministry of Science and Higher education

• Requesting universities to select and send experienced staff to be part of the curriculum
revision team.
• Establishing curriculum revision team
• Giving policy direction and orientation to the curriculum revision team about the
relevance of curriculum revision of higher education
• Organizing conferences
• Selecting and inviting stakeholders for participation
• Managing administrative affairs
• Printing and distributing materials for universities
• Collecting and summarizing data from universities and submitting to the curriculum
revision team

3.2. Curriculum Revision Team

• Collecting international experience about the nature of common courses

• Collecting data from universities about the nature of common courses
• Analyzing the data and selecting common courses
• Selecting common courses through multi tier discussions

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 • Presenting the results to the participants of the conferences
• Collecting comments from conference participants and making amendments
• Consulting and assisting subject specialists while developing course guide
• Reporting the progress to MoSHE

3.3. University Presidents

• Presenting the document on the proposed common courses to the middle level managers
and collecting the comments, summarizing the comments and sending them to MoSHE
• Directing and following the middle managers to present the document for the staff
members and collecting and summarizing the comments
• Sending the summary of comments to MoSHE

3.4. Subject Specialists

• Developing the course guide in line with the rationale drawn from education sector
roadmap study document
• Developing the syllabus for the courses
• Restructuring all courses

25
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Alemayehu Bishaw , Solomon Melese (2017). The Historical Analysis of Challenges and
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ESDP II (2002).Education sector for Development program II (ESDP-I) MOE. Addis Ababa.
FDRE. (2003). Higher Education Proclamation No. 351/2003. . AA; BSPP.
Girma, Amare (2000). Aims and Purposes of Church Education in Ethiopia.(Unpublished.)
Marew, Zewdie (2000).A Study Guide for Curriculum Implementation and Evaluation,
Unpublished Teaching Materials for the Course Educ.676, Addis Ababa University.
Maaza Bekele. (1966). A study of Modern Education in Ethiopia: Its Foundation.
MoE. (2003). New Curriculum for Higher Education (Unpublished). A.A.U
MoE. (2002). The Education and Training Policy and its Implementation. MoE; A.A.
Pankhurst, R.et al (1991). Ethiopia; A Country Study. (online retrieved on March 18/2013)
MoE (2018). Education Roadmap of Ethiopia: A Desk Review. Unpublished.
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Tekeste Negash. (1996). Rethinking Education in Ethiopia. Uppsala; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet,
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Teshome, G. Wagaw (1979). Education in Ethiopia: Prospects and Retrospect. Ann Arbor, The
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Teshome Yizengaw (2004). The Status and Challenges of Ethiopian Higher Education System
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