Message from the Vice President of Academic and Research

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Dilla University with this brief information on its academic and research affairs since its inception in September 2007.

Dilla University was set up amidst a rural village (Walame) on the outskirts of Dilla town in a campus formerly called Dilla College. Our university strongly shares the national goals of higher education… increasing enrollments and at the same time striving for higher quality and relevance of instruction, research, and community service.

It has registered dramatic development in academic and research wing, though it was in many respects a challenging formative year for the board and staff.

Currently, the university has five faculty and 32 departments and will launch the Faculty of Health Sciences in the near future. The student’s enrolment in the regular (4,946), extension (871) and special summer in-service program (3,120) is indicative of growing enrollment rate. Eleven (Assistant Professors), 135 (Lecturers and Asst. Lecturers), 66 (Graduate Assistants), 10 (Technical Assistants), altogether 219 academic staff members are on the job. Forty-nine academic staff members are on study leave; out of which 16 are studying for Ph.D. -- indicating that the staff development plan is proceeding pretty well.

About 15 projects undertaken by instructors are sponsored by government budget and have strong plan to boost the research activities both in terms of budget allocation and diversity of areas. We are collaborating with NTNU (Norway) and University of Zambia via NUFU-supported projects and initiating collaborative activities with Delp (British Council) and also with the University of Tromiso, Norway.

As the result of the commitment of the staff and increased involvement and support of the government, the University is no more worried about survival now, but about excellence and expansion.

Thursday, October 23, 2008 Last Updated

Dr. Fikre Desalegn