Ethiopian politicians with PhDs: A challenge facing the higher education sector?

 About a decade ago, many Ethiopians considered teaching in higher education as one of the most prestigious occupations. In recent years, however, the social status of the teaching profession, in general, has been significantly eroded.

The expansion of higher education, which resulted in the recruitment of faculty with no or limited experience and qualifications, the poor quality of graduates, low salaries, and the indiscernible impacts of higher education on the country’s social, economic and political development, among other factors, have contributed to the low social status of teaching as a profession.

In the past two decades, the number of public universities increased from two to 50. However, because of the lack of qualified teachers, many universities have been struggling to fill the teaching positions created as a result of considerable higher education expansion.

Making the situation worse is qualified faculty who have been leaving universities (temporarily and permanently) in their numbers because of different push and pull factors. In fact, the lack of highly qualified faculty is considered as one of the major challenges facing Ethiopian higher education.

The ambitious plan

Considering the qualification levels of academic staff members, the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education plans to have a mix of 30% PhD, 70% masters and 0% bachelor holders in the sector. However, as of August 2020, the faculty qualification mix is 14% PhD, 64% masters and 21% bachelor.

This clearly indicates there is much more to do to increase the number of faculty with PhDs. Data shows that, currently, there are about 6,000 PhD holders in all public universities.

In relation to this, the ministry of science and higher education developed the Homegrown Collaborative PhD Programme (HCPP) which aims to produce 5,000 PhD-qualified faculty in five years. The aims of the HCCP are, among others, to address the lack of highly qualified faculty and to establish strong and sustainable collaboration, partnerships and networking among higher education institutions in Ethiopia.

There is no doubt that this ambitious plan will significantly increase the number of faculty with PhDs. However, there are financial and administrative issues that could potentially affect effective and efficient implementation of the plan, and this requires genuine political and institutional commitment of all relevant stakeholders.

Moreover, having 5,000 PhD graduates within five years requires enrolling 5,000 students in the first two years because the PhD programmes are often four years. This does not seem feasible, considering the current human, financial and institutional capacity of universities in Ethiopia.

Unforeseen challenge

Some of the push factors include the lack of a conducive working environment and unattractive salaries and benefits.

This, in turn, serves as the basis for some pulling factors such as an opportunity to work as leaders in the federal and regional government offices. Academics moving into government positions have dramatically increased since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.

In 2018, when Ahmed appointed a new cabinet, the headlines were fixated on its composition with 50% women.

This was lauded by many people, governments and national and international media.

Yet, what was equally interesting was that nine of the 20 cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, were PhD holders. Several PhD holders were also assigned as state ministers and became the heads of different government offices.

This was a new trend and it has sparked a PhD holder faculty’s exodus from higher education to politics.

The ministry of science and higher education, in collaboration with universities, facilitates a ‘home-base’ which entitles the appointee to come back to their home university when they finish their government contract.

In principle, this is a good strategy but, in practice, appointees are not necessarily returning to their home universities.

Politicians with PhDs are not unheard of. In 2011 in Germany, the 16-strong cabinet of Angela Merkel boasted no fewer than 10 PhDs.

What makes the Ethiopian case different is that many of the PhD holder cabinet members were taken from universities and many more faculty with a PhD qualification are candidates for the upcoming national election.

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Dr Abebaw Yirga Adamu is an associate professor of higher education at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He is a Global Dialogue fellow of the Association of International Educators (NAFSA) (2019-21) and a former International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) University Administration Support Program Research Management fellow. He can be contacted on abebaw.yirga@aau.edu.et. This article is a commentary.