The nation's 278th private higher education institution started operations last week following a total investment of about 25 million Br. Business Innovation Technology Systems College (BITS) will provide four technology courses in undergraduate and graduate programmes.

It will teach software engineering and information technology & systems within four-year degrees in its undergraduate programmes. The two-year graduate programmes include information technology management and enterprise systems engineering.

To operationalise the College, which can accommodate 80 students in the regular programmes and about 280 students in the graduate studies and extension programmes, took four years. Feasibility study, construction, curriculum design and managerial preparations were completed before opening its doors.

The College was initiated to bridge the gap between industry and the available education, according to Tesfaye Biru (PhD), president of the College, which built a five-story building that features four computer labs and two libraries. Both the undergraduate library and the graduate library can host around 85 students at a time.

"The industry is lacking IT architects and technology consultants with a combined knowledge of IT and business, and this is the premise behind our choice of programmes and curriculum design," he said. "How do we harness technology to solve our problems? That's the main issue we want to address."

The Higher Education Relevance & Quality Agency awarded the College a three-year license last year to operate at its Yeka Park campus. While issuing the permit, the Agency reviewed teachers' qualifications, availability of facilities such as laboratories, the internet connection, curriculum design, annual plan, and the adequate structure of human resources and academic staff.

The license must be renewed after three years and, pending approval, the College will then be provided with a new five-year license, according to Andualem Admassie (PhD), director-general of the Agency, which licensed 278 private higher education institutions to provide undergraduate and graduate studies.

While applying for the permit, the College also conducted a needs-assessment study and presented it to the Agency, which uses the application to determine whether the College's strategy is aligned with society's needs.

"We invested a lot in student-centric facilities," stated Tesfaye.

The College was ready to welcome students earlier this year, but it did not commence classes due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It plans to begin classes right away for graduating students, but it is having doubts about starting the undergraduate programme. Twelfth graders have not yet received their matriculation because of postponements due to COVID-19 and the conflict in Tigray Regional State.