As Ethiopia strives to improve the quality of the nation’s higher education system, 25 public university presidents and vice presidents visited three U.S. public universities October 14-25 to observe how U.S. universities were tackling similar challenges on their own campuses.  Their study tour followed an August 2023 workshop on educational leadership in Addis Ababa as part of the U.S. Embassy-sponsored Leadership, Management, and Government (LMG) program.  The two-year program, designed to advance the shared U.S.-Ethiopian goal of improving the quality of higher education in Ethiopia, is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Education.   

United States Ambassador Ervin Massinga and Minister of Education Birhanu Nega met with the university leaders Oct. 27 at Addis Ababa University’s Kennedy Library to hear their observations and lessons learned from their U.S. government-funded study tour of Texas Tech University, Oklahoma State University, and The Ohio State University.  Kidist Yohannes, Vice President of Kotebe University of Education, echoing other participants, noted that the university visits provided many valuable lessons she will take back to her own campus to create better learning environments for the faculty, students, and community.