Melat Yohannes is the fictitious name of a senior studying computer science at Gondar University. She has not attended her classes at the university since last Thursday, November 22, 2018, when an altercation between students broke out and resulted in injuries.

Many students have already started attending classes and the tension has calmed down since the event of the week before. But she has chosen to wait and take stock of the situation for a few days before starting class.

“We have been told that a meeting will be held between students, the management and officials from the Ministry of Science & Higher Education,” she said.

Meetings to address tensions in communities and towns have been a recurrent theme across the country for the past six months. Unrest in the country have left nearly 2.4 million people internally displaced, with over a million displaced during the first half of this year. This level of dislocation within this time period is considered to be the highest in the world.

Before the beginning of the academic year, the thinking was that political unrests and associated violence will abate and that institutions of higher education will be safe for students to start the academic year. But this has not been the case across the 41 public universities that are expected to take in around 149,000 this year. These public institutions consume the lion's share, or 26pc, of the country’s Gross Domestic Product allocated yearly.

This problem is not confined to Gondar University but has been observed at Assosa and Mizan Teppi universities.

The President of Mizan Teppi University, Faris Delil (PhD), recalls how they were struggling to complete the summer courses with blocked roads and shortages of food supplies at the Teppi Campus.

The University’s other campus, Mizan Aman is north located approximately 50Km south of Teppi. At this campus, the education program has been going on peacefully.

“We already started class in September,” said a third-year student of public health at the main campus who requested anonymity. “But students of other departments such as agriculture and business only started in mid-November.”

Even though the main campus has been peaceful, some parents have refused to send their students due to the fear of violence.

“Five students in the public health department and about 12 students in the pharmacy school did not show up for class,” the public health student said.

About 90pc of students have returned, leaving nearly 200 freshman students that have not yet registered. However, the president stresses that this is not out of the ordinary as a similar number of dropouts and students choose not to register for reasons of inconvenience or due to selecting other educational opportunities.

The president went to Hawassa to discuss with officials of the Southern Nations Nationalities & Peoples Regional (SNNPR) State about ways to reduce tension, address the problems and learn how the process can be continued smoothly.

“The management of the university has also been discussing the issue with higher officials at the Ministry of Science & Higher Education,” he says.