A virtual meeting is held on the preparation for launching of Forum of International Offices of Ethiopian Universities and on the formulation of national policy and strategy document that guides the internationalization efforts of the institutions.
The meeting was chaired by Professor Afework Kassu, State Minster at the FDRE Ministry of Science and Higher Education and attended by high level officials at MoSHE, President of Jigjiga University, V/P for Research and Technology Transfer of Addis Ababa University and Directors of International Offices of Makele, Jimma, Bahir Dar & Hawassa Universities. Professor Afework briefly highlighted the necessity of intensive internationalization of the higher education system in the country and the international and national context under which universities should be able to operate. He said, it should come out as one of the core activities of Universities and we should accrue the expected level of benefit from being engaged in the activities. For this to happen, according to him, we need to gear ourselves up and give sufficient attention to the activities of internationalization in terms of strategies, policies, structures, sharing of experiences and changing attitudes on the handling of the activities.
The meeting was finally very fruitful in setting directions for the finalization of a national policy and strategy document, the establishment of forum of international offices of Ethiopian universities and preparation of launching document for the same and also hosting of virtual conferences and seminars for the launching of the forum by bringing all relevant stakeholders on board.