In the media

The last three decades have witnessed the global proliferation of private higher education institutions at tremendous speed. Ethiopian private higher education institutions, or PHEIs, need to be accredited before commencing operation. The limitation on government authorities’ ability to enforce rules continues to encourage illegal institutions and students to take their chances. Taking the size of their student populations as their line of defence, rogue providers capitalise on the “excessive damage” any government action might cause when their illegal acts are exposed.

The expansion of higher education in Ethiopia has, where employment opportunities are available, brought demands for better qualifications – in addition to the variety of opportunities it has created. The sense of consternation created due to the growing demand for additional qualifications has led to a situation in which those who cannot manage the catch-up are tempted to seek short-cut mechanisms for obtaining degrees to ensure the continuity of their earnings and job status. Nowhere is this pressure being felt more in Ethiopia than in the civil service which accommodates more than five million employees.

A significant number of faculty members are being accused of securing their academic promotions through predatory publications and other sub-standard means. To combat this unethical practice, the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE) issued a new Harmonised Standard for Academic Staff Promotion in Public Universities in October 2020. The MoSHE says the safest way to avoid predatory publications is for academics to submit manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals indexed by databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed.