Student Demographics

The department of Geography and Environmental Studies has made remarkable transformation over the past couple of decades. It started operation by one instructor, who used to teach ‘Introduction to Geography of Ethiopia’ a common course given for students of Health Sciences at the then Institute of Health Science in 1990s. Hence, it emerged from being part of ‘Basic Science Unit’ in the institute to an amalgamate of department of ‘Social Science’ with History in 2000 to, finally, a separate or independent department of Geography and Environmental Studies in 2004. At the time, the department admitted 280 students into its regular Bachelor of Education program and 50 students to Diploma evening program. Now, in 2019, the department of Geography and Environmental Studies has total student population of 940 in undergraduate and graduate programs. There is huge gap in gender balance in the department. The proportion of female students is at the maximum of 24% at undergraduate program (Figure 1), and it stands at a minimum of 7% at graduate program (Figure 2). The overall program enrolled only 20% or 188 female students in 2019 (Figure 3). We have admitted our first foreign student Christiane Nabintu Migbo from D.R. Congo into our graduate program of GIS and Remote Sensing in 2019.