Honorary doctoral lecture
14:15 Welcome by Rector Svein St?len
Introduction of honorary doctor by MultiLing's Center director, Unn R?yneland
"Decolonizing and reforming Higher Education in Ethiopia" by honorary doctor, Hirut Woldemariam Teketel
Q&A chaired by Unn R?yneland
15:30 Program ends
The lecture is open to everyone and will be held in English. It will also be possible to follow the lecture via Zoom: https://uio.zoom.us/j/69211268347.
Abstract
Decolonizing and reforming Higher Education in Ethiopia
Ethiopian Higher Education needs to decolonize its curricula for relevance and quality. Enormous expansions have been witnessed over the last decades in Ethiopia’s Higher Education system. Modelled after the ideals of Western universities, however, Higher Education in Ethiopia demonstrates no indigenous nature. Ethiopia is a country with an ancient civilization, rich indigenous knowledge, vast written heritage, and its own traditional knowledge creation system. The country has not had a colonial past, and was able to develop a traditional system of education matching the level of higher education. Nevertheless, Higher Education in Ethiopia is not much different from that of other colonized African countries. Moreover, in order to speed up the turnover of graduates, basic knowledge and skills courses were eliminated from the curricula until a couple of years ago. Along with the use of English as a medium of instruction, in which most students as well as teachers lack adequate proficiency, the quality as well as the relevance of education have been compromised. Likewise, research outputs of both faculty as well as students have been criticized for demonstrating poor quality and even plagiarism. Ethiopian education has drifted far away from being appropriately matched to the socio-economic demands of the country. Ethiopia needs to have control over the process of formulating curricula and the knowledge created through them. Teaching what is useful to the country while at the same time preparing students for what the 21st century global world calls for should go hand in hand. Ethiopian universities should place themselves as owners, producers and users of indigenous knowledge in such a way as to be significant both nationally as well as globally. This lecture will present an analysis of the journey Ethiopia has started to reform its Higher Education system in order to reset it. The research behind the study to be presented is grounded in qualitative research methodology, critical theory of education, dependency theory, and Afrikology epistemology.
About the honorary doctor
Professor Hirut Woldemariam Teketel holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Department of African Studies, University of Cologne, Germany. She is a professor at the Department of Linguistics and Philology at the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but is currently a research fellow at the University of Cologne.
At the University of Addis Ababa, she has held several leadership positions, including being the first female vice-rector at the university. Woldemariam Teketel has also held several cabinet posts in the Ethiopian government, including as Minister of Research and Higher Education. Woldemariam Teketel has spent her career breaking glass ceilings and providing a model to empower women in leadership and promote increased gender equality in Ethiopia.
Read more about Woldemariam Teketel and her long-term collaboration with MultiLing and UiO.
UiO's honorary doctorate is given to prominent, most often foreign, scholars. It is awarded without the candidate having defended a dissertation in a public defense. UiO has had the right to appoint honorary doctors since 1824. They are usually appointed every three years at UiO's annual party in September.