Eritrea
Eritrea has seen a change in its higher education system in the
period 2004–2010. However, this reform is not a change in the system
itself, but a change in the number of institutions offering higher
education in the country. The system of diploma-, bachelor- (and
master-) programmes has remained more or less the same, except for the
fact that the number of programs has increased.
The University of Asmara has been the only institution of higher
education in the whole country. All issues related to higher education
have been concentrated around the university. To be able to offer higher
education to a larger number of students, the government decided to
close the University of Asmara, with no new intake of students after
2003. Then they upgraded seven of the underlying colleges of the
university to independent institutions of higher education. Some of the
new colleges have also been moved to other parts of the country, and one
could say that there has been a decentralisation of higher education in
Eritrea. The result is that Eritrea today has seven institutions
offering higher education, and the number of students attending programs
of higher education has risen from around 5000 students at the
University of Asmara in 2004 to around 17 000 students attending
programmes at the new colleges of higher education today.
The University of Asmara’s main programme were the diploma programme
and the bachelor's degree; and was only able to introduce the master's
degree programme in 2004 just before closing. Today we see that most of
the new colleges of higher education have already introduced many new
master's degree programmes or are planning to introduce master's degree
programmes in the near future.
Ethiopia
The reforms in neighbouring Ethiopia have been far more wide reaching with changes in both secondary and higher education.
Since the late 1990s, the number of higher education institutions has
risen dramatically as has the number of students. The government has
opened up for private higher education institutions, and established
more than 15 new public universities, bringing the total number of
public institutions to just over 30. The private higher education sector
has grown exponentially in number of institutions, but the majority of
students still attend the public universities.
Secondary education has changed with the introduction of the
“Preparatory Year”, which in practice is an amalgamation between the
12th grade and the freshman year of higher education.
The diploma programmes ceased to be higher education with the last
batch of students graduating in 2006/2007. Technical Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) has today both taken on, and expanded, the
role the older diplomas had in the Ethiopian educational system.
The reforms in Ethiopia have moved back and forth on the question of
normative length of degree studies, going from 4 to 3 and then back to 4
years again for a regular bachelors. Nor are the reform processes over.
The government has recently started a drive for all higher education
institutions to streamline subjects into a national plan favouring
technical subjects.
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