Indicia of the developmental state concept in the Ethiopian higher education

Abstract

Modern higher education in Ethiopia has a short history of a little over six decades. Over the past two decades there have been tremendous reforms that aimed at expanding and modernizing the higher education subsector to enable it make meaningful contributions for the country s development. On the other hand, in the past decade there has been a lot of debate on the nature of the Ethiopian developmental state. However, all the debates are focused on economic issues, leaving education out of the picture. It is against this background that this study attempts to shade a light on the nature of the Ethiopian higher education taking the perspective of the developmental state paradigm. Using the method of document analysis the findings of the study indicate that the Ethiopian higher education has strong indicia of the developmental state concept. The main characteristics of the Ethiopian higher education such as strong state control, central admission process, focus on certain priority areas, massive expansion, emphasis on technology transfer and using higher education to serve non economic national agendas typically correspond with that of developmental states. The study has also identified some inconsistencies and shortcomings. For instance the Ethiopian higher education falls short in terms of institutional diversity, adequacy of research on technology transfer, and the role of the private sector. Finally, some implications are highlighted that pinpoint the areas where more detailed policy research are necessary.