The federal agency in charge of education quality assurance has begun reviewing the quality of all 51 public universities in the country for accreditation. The universities have been operating without accreditation until now.

The assessment covers the institutions' programmes and facilities along with laboratories, libraries and other resources for higher learning. The Higher Education Relevance & Quality Agency has requested that all public universities submit course catalogues. Three universities in Tigray Regional State—Axum, Adigrat and Meqelle—are currently finalising their course catalogues.

Seven experts from the Agency are developing the initiative's action plan, which requires extensive budgetary and human resources. Findings of the assessment, results and recommendations will be tabled to the Ministry of Science & Higher Education for approval.

The initiative came about to respond to the quality compromise observed in universities across the country, according to Andualem Admassie (PhD), director-general of the Agency. Multiple universities being opened up to address issues of reach has created quality compromises, according to him.

"Closing down the universities is unlikely as most meet minimum requirements," said Andualem. "But [the assessment] will likely result in closing down or launching programmes and campuses at different universities."

It will also provide support to facets of the institutions under assessment.

"Getting 2,000 students or having three faculties isn't an issue for universities," said Andualem, highlighting some of the requirements put in place. "As pass marks for students eligible for university are based on the capacity of the country's higher education institutions, fulfilling the student quota is easy."

However, the courses given, staff qualifications, libraries and workshops, leadership governance and other metrics will be assessed for better outcomes. Universities will then be ranked on different qualifying measurements like research and development, as well as employability of graduates and prestige.

Though the Agency is mandated to carry out license conferring and accreditation to both private and public higher education institutions, the law allows room for universities to be opened by the Council of Ministers. However, accrediting them after opening has so far been difficult to implement due to the Agency's structural and institutional shortcomings, according to the director-general.

The appraisal process implemented regarding the inputs, process and output levels of universities will also include feasibility studies and labour market analyses as graduate tracing is included. A tracer study means trailing the employment status of graduates.

Graduate tracing is important to understand which fields are underserviced and which are saturated, according to the director-general of the Agency, which is drafting a proclamation to restructure itself to directly report to the parliament or the Office of the Prime Minister. The bill will also transform the agency into either an authority or a commission.

Universities will not be opened nor will they add programmes and faculties without the Agency's blessing in line with the standards for private universities and colleges in the country, which number 250 in total. From these, five are private universities, and the rest are colleges.