Ministry Puts University Autonomy on a Tight Rein

Apr 8 , 2026. By DAGIM SEIFE ( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER )

Federal education officials have drawn a hard line, planning to remake public universities and issuing a directive outlining how they may graduate from centralised supervision to autonomous governance, but only if they can prove they are ready.

Framed under a law issued a little over a decade ago, the new rules present autonomy as a conditional transition governed by measurable standards in administration, human resources, finance, and academics. A screening system is designed to determine whether a public higher learning institution can govern itself without compromising performance.

Universities seeking autonomous status should score at least 60pc on a detailed readiness framework that tests institutional capacity across the four pillars. First comes a self-evaluation led by the university’s own management. Then comes a separate and independent assessment by a committee composed of academic and administrative staff outside the management structure. Only after these two rounds are completed do the findings go to the university board, which considers whether the institution has shown the aggregate score and the consistency needed to move ahead.

For officials at the Ministry of Education (MoE), the point is to loosen control without lowering standards. According to Solomon Abreha (PhD), the Ministry’s CEO for Governance & Infrastructure, the directive is intended to transform public universities into self-governing institutions capable of managing their academic and institutional mandates. But he is equally open to the idea that the state is not stepping away altogether.

“Autonomy doesn't mean privatisation,” he said, rejecting what he depicted as a common misconception.

He disclosed that universities will remain public institutions and that the federal government will continue to work with them on national and strategic priorities, while maintaining oversight and support until they are fully capable of managing themselves. In this design, independence comes tethered to stricter accountability and institutions that fail to meet the threshold will not receive the status.

There are over 45 public universities, categorised by the Ministry into research (8), applied sciences (17), general (21), and specialised (3) institutions. They serve a student population exceeding one million, with an aggregate staff likely reaching 100,000.

That tension between promised autonomy and tightened oversight is already shaping how university leaders are responding.

For Mengesha Ayene (PhD), president of Bahir Dar University (BDU), preparations began months before the formal directive was released. The University created a dedicated office to anticipate the shift in financial and academic governance and to organise its response to the Ministry’s emerging expectations.

“With feedback from the Ministry and the new directive, we've heightened the process,” Mengesha told Fortune.

However, he conceded that some of the requirements are difficult to meet "under current conditions" and may only be fully achieved after autonomy is granted. Yet he sees the directive less as an impediment checklist than as a practical benchmark for institutional improvement.

"However demanding, it offers a clearer route forward," he said.

Located in Bahir Dar, the seat of the Amhara Regional State, the University is a prominent public research learning institution established in 2000 through the merger of the Polytechnic Institute and Teachers College, with roots dating back to diploma programs in the 1960s. It has grown into one of the largest institutions, enrolling over 26,500 students across 219 programs, including 69 undergraduate, 118 master's, and 32 PhD programs in fields like engineering, education, business, economics, and law.

Jimma University (JU) has also been preparing, though on a different timeline.

According to Teklu Tafesse (PhD), head of the President’s Office, the institution has spent the past two years reviewing its internal systems in anticipation of the shift.

In the Oromia Region State, about 352Km southwest of Addis Abeba, the University is a pioneering community-oriented public research institution, established in 1999 by combining Jimma College of Agriculture (founded in 1952) and the Jimma Institute of Health Sciences (1983). Ranked as the country's top university by the Ministry of Education from 2009 to 2012, it serves over 43,000 students through 56 undergraduate and 103 postgraduate programs across four campuses (with a fifth at Agaro).

Teklu disclosed that the University plans to submit its first round of self-assessment within two weeks. Its strategy has already moved beyond internal paperwork toward financial diversification, including public-private partnership projects and agricultural transformation initiatives intended to generate income while supporting local development and private businesses. But Teklu voiced his concerns over a constraint that he believes universities cannot solve on their own.

"The civil service framework still governing human resource management should be revised by the Ministry if autonomy is to function in practice," he said. "New regulations need to be issued in time to support the transition."

Sceptics, however, doubt that procedural readiness will be sufficient.

Belayneh Taye (PhD), a visiting researcher at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom (UK), argued that the Ministry's ambitions may outpace the system’s actual capacity.

"The academic, financial, and managerial foundations of many public universities remain too weak to support a reform of this scale," he told Fortune.

He pointed to persistent quality deficiencies, including outdated curricula, non-accredited laboratories, under-resourced libraries, and limited digital learning tools, as constraints to be addressed. Research capacity remains low, while dependence on government funding is heavy enough to constrain long-term sustainability.

Belayneh is especially critical of how universities are managed. He observed that academic staff are frequently elevated to management roles without formal preparation in leadership or administration.

"It results in weak strategic direction and operational inefficiencies," Belayneh said. "That runs against the directive’s aspiration toward professionalised governance."

He placed the reforms within a broader international context, stating that in the United Kingdom, university autonomy coexists with continued government regulation, quality assurance, and market competition.

"Independence there is neither absolute nor detached from the state's eye," Belayneh told Fortune.

He sees an even deeper structural flaw in the fragmentation of research and innovation. He saw how units responsible for research, community service, and industry engagement often work in isolation. They are unable to develop coherent research ecosystems or compete effectively for grants that could support financial independence. The problem is compounded by paper-based systems for grant administration and reporting that are slow, error-prone, and opaque.

For Belayneh, digital transformation is not an accessory to reform but its precondition. He argued for unified digital platforms covering research administration, grant management, and funding intelligence, along with real-time data systems to support evidence-based planning. He also called for durable partnerships with industry, funders, and government bodies to open revenue streams through consultancy and industry-backed research.

"Autonomy works only if the system behind it works,” said Belayneh.

PUBLISHED ON Apr 08,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1354]