College of Natural Sciences
The College of Natural Sciences is the recent name given to the former Faculty of Education with some basic re-organisation in departmental composition and future direction as of July, 2009. The Faculty of Education used to train professional teachers in different fields of study (Afan Oromo, Amharic, Biology, Chemistry, English, History, Geography and Environmental Studies, Mathematics, Pedagogy, Physics and Sport Sciences) in regular, extension, and/or summer programs. As of July, 2009, however, the Faculty of Education was re-structured into Colleges of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences & Law.
Currently, the College of Natural Sciences encompasses seven functional departments including the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, and Sport Science. These departments train professionals both in applied fields (regular program), and teaching (the summer program), with the exception of the Departments of Statistics and Information Science which currently does not give training in the summer in service program.
The last batch of undergraduate regular students trained for teaching at secondary schools graduated in the 2009/10 Academic Year. Besides training applied science professionals in the regular program and partly in the summer at the undergraduate level, the college has already launched postgraduate programs in the fields of Biology (Applied Microbiology, Botanical Sciences and Ecology & Systematic Zoology), Chemistry, Biostatistics, & Mathematics.
PhD in Applied Microbiology, PhD in Mathematics (Numerical Analysis) and PhD in Physics (in Nuclear Physics & Condessed Matter Physics) are started and running at the College.
Objectives
The main objective of Statistics Department is to train both middle and high level statisticians/biostatisticians of high academic standards who can take part in various socio-economic, business and development sectors within the country.
Vision
The College aspires to be the best higher learning college both locally and regionally with respect to research output and quality of graduating professionals.
Mission
As one of the colleges of Jimma University, an institution pioneer in Community Based Education, the college strives to integrate teaching, research, good governance and community services. To this end, it provides the highest quality education enabling the production of outstanding graduates of the highest caliber in both the undergraduate and graduate levels; it promotes and conducts problem–driven innovative research pertinent to nationwide development; it expands and maintains strong links with local community, industry, organizations, and other universities, both locally and internationally.