Addis Ababa University’s (AAU’s) Africa Centre of Excellence for Water Management (ACEWM) held a Technical and High-Level Advisory Meeting with the a goal of “Building Excellence in Teaching, Researching, Networking and Knowledge Management to Ensure Equitable and Sustainable Development and Use of Water Resources”at Capital Hotel and Spa on January 25, 2022.

Professor Tasew Weldehanna, President of AAU, in his welcoming speech addressed that the centres of Water Management, Railway Engineering and Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials were established to create opportunities that enable researchers in Africa and the world to collaborate across disciplines and programs holistically relevant to address key development challenges.

As stated by Prof. Tassew, the meeting was very important to share the achievements and the best practices of ACEWM during the last four years concerning teaching, researching, skills development training, partnerships, revenue generation and overall management to ensure sustainability.

 “The most important rationale for establishing ACEWM is the need for development of highly skilled human resource capable of handling more complex water management problems in a holistic, integrative and transformative approach,” Prof. Tassew stressed.

Dereje Engida (PhD), President of Addis Ababa Science and Technology University (AASTU), in his presentation said, “The goal of accreditation is to ensure education provided by higher education institutions achieve acceptable levels of quality that addresses accountability.”

Program level accreditation leads to greater mobility through the internationalization of education with mutual recognition of professional qualifications; this also attracts foreign students and pave the way to become education hub in the region, Dr. Dereje stated.

Mekasha Kassaye (PhD), Director for Quality Assurance, AAU, in his presentation of Addis Ababa University’s Quality Enhancement Action Plan, noted that dire need exists to totally or radically transform the present systems of design and operations in higher education.

Dr. Mekasha added that building or developing a generic national level Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) including key components of accreditation, evaluation and other several issues is mandatory.

“The notion or conceptualization of quality is an ever evolving concept demanded for higher development and tastes of community endeavour; thus, QAFs need continuous improvement,” he asserted.

Reporter: Theodros Shewangizaw

Photo: Fikremariam Beyene

Editor: Abraham Girmay