Quality Assurance Practices in Ethiopian Higher Education: The Case of Addis Ababa University

Abstract

At the beginning of the millennium, despite voiced concerns by other stakeholders and in the absence of favorable policy environment and virtual ignorance of the sector throughout the 1990s, higher education establishments in Ethiopia experienced hegemonic attack by government. This position was subsequently used by government and the ministry to introduce a series of reforms in higher education and teacher education termed as Higher Education System Overhaul (HESO) and Teacher Education System Overhaul (TESO) respectively. Using available policy and research documents, this article explores quality notion in higher education, important international and domestic pressure attributed for the need to establish quality and relevance assuring mechanisms. Finally, attempt was made to see existing mechanisms within Addis Ababa University and challenge to establish system of quality assurance mechanism to the expanding sector.