St. Mary's University (Addis Ababa)

St. Mary's University

ቅድስት ማርያም ዩኒቨርስቲ
Type	Private University
President and Founder	Associate Professor Wondwosen Tamrat
Students	30,000
Undergraduates	6,017 + 22000 (distance learners)
Postgraduates	2000
Address	Mexico Square Next to Wabi Shebele Hotel Addis Ababa BT12 6FE , Addis Ababa , Ethiopia
Website	http://www.smuc.edu.et

St. Mary’s University (SMU), established in 1998, is a prominent Ethiopian institution of higher learning located in the capital of the country, Addis Ababa. The University is private, young, and dynamic. After fifteen years of dedicated service as a college first and a university college since 2008, it earned a university status from the Ethiopian Ministry of Education in Sept 2013. From the outset, SMU set up as its mission the provision of quality instruction for its students, research works, academic material production, as well as professional consultancy for the growing needs of Ethiopia and its citizens. Recognizing the complexity of the current world and the multi-ethnic heritage of Ethiopia, the university promotes an atmosphere of openness, tolerance, mutual respect and cooperation.

At present, St. Mary's University has four main campuses in Addis Ababa, 13 major Distance Education Regional Centers, and close to 160 Coordination offices spreading throughout the country. The University has over 200 full-time academic staff and close to 1000 employees. It caters to the needs of close to six thousand students in the undergraduate conventional mode of learning, over twenty thousand students enrolled in distance education programs, and close to two thousand students in its graduate programs. Currently eight graduate programs are run in partnership with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). These programs include Business Administration, Public Administration, Library and Information Science, Sociology, Economics, Commerce, Rural Development and Political Science in the distance mode of learning. In the conventional mode of learning, SMU is also accredited for ten graduate programs that it runs on its own: MBA,HRM,Project Management, Accounting and Finance,Marketing management, Development Economics, Computer Science, Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics and Rural Development. The university has a reputable Testing Center that provides excellent services in the preparation of standardized tests, job placement tests, and international tests such as the IBT- TOEFL and GRE. Expanding its services, SMU has also opened a K-12 school that is widening its reach to those in the realms of general education.

The university is renowned for its significant contributions in research:organizing annual conferences, workshops and publishing research journals,proceedings and bulletins. Among such efforts is the annual international research conference exclusively focusing on private higher education and held since 2003.As a sequel to this platform the university has managed to set up a Clearing House on Private Higher Education Research which is housed under its web- site.The other annual conferences include: The Annual Multi- disciplinary Conference, The Annual Student Research Forum, and the Annual Open and Distance Education seminar. SMU also publishes bi-annual journals in three disciplines; agriculture and development, business and administration, and law. Almost all the articles published in the proceedings and journals under its auspices are made available in its website at www.smuc.edu.et. and the African Journals Online website.

Another important distinguishing mark of the university is its commitment to educational quality which has helped it earn a high level of credibility among its internal and external stakeholders. SMU is the first higher education institution in Ethiopia to undergo a self initiated external quality audit in 2004 that paved the way for the introduction of a formal QA system at a national level. It was again supervised by the national quality agency in 2008 and came out as a shining example of quality higher education provision in Ethiopia with outstanding results in all categories of evaluation. Its major activities as related to quality are coordinated through the University's Center for Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance established in 2006.

SMU is a founding member of Ethiopian Private Higher Education Institutions Association, a member of the Association of African Universities, African Quality Assurance Network (AfriQan), and an associate member of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) and International Council for Distance Education (ICDE).

See also

• University website: smuc.edu.et
• University facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/smu.edu.et
• Academia: stmarysethiopia.academia.edu
• Education in Ethiopia
• List of universities and colleges in Ethiopia

References

Ethiopia University List

External links

• Official site
• Indira Gandhi National Open University
• Association of African Universities
• International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education
• African Quality Network (AfriQan)