University of South Africa Addis Ababa

Unisa - University of south africa

University of South Africa Addis Ababa

University of South Africa Addis Ababa, College of Graduate Studies

Ethiopia Graduate Office

The UNISA – Ethiopia Graduate Office in the College of Graduate Studies was inaugurated in January, 2007. It has bilateral relationship with the Ethiopian government that has provided UNISA with the premise that belongs to the Ethiopian National Bank. Currently, the premise is shared between UNISA and Addis Ababa University (UNISA occupying about 10-15%).

In Ethiopia, UNISA grants qualifications at all levels (Undergraduate, Honors, Master’s and Doctoral). It also receives students in all Colleges (CAES, CEDU, CEMS, CAS, CHS, CLAW, and CSET). Currently, there are 17 staff members in the Academy – the Country Director being a South African and the rest Ethiopians.

The University of South Africa has started operating in Ethiopian since 2007 in a mutual understanding to assist the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) government in capacity building at the postgraduate level. In light of this UNISA-Ethiopia regional learning centre does have a large number of master and doctoral students enrolled in the seven colleges under different departments.  According to the statistics of May 2012 there are 370 doctoral students registered at the centre and currently doctoral students constitute more than half of the total student population.

In order to realize the expectation of the Ethiopian government UNISA has enrolled large number of M & D students and has been providing a variety of academic support and administrative services to doctoral students. Academic support is provided through postgraduate workshops that aim to train students in proposal writing and other parts of their research.  In doing so the University has invested a lot of money and resources to produce a competent and skillful graduates. In addition to the academic support services through the regional office UNISA provides administrative support services such as: registration, library, ICT, counseling and finance.

The research aim is to seek access and present factual data Ethiopian doctoral students research experiences in the areas of supervision, skill development, University climate and their predisposed expectation of supervision, skill development and University climate. The study conducted for this report had the following specific aims:

  • To explore doctoral students’ experience of the quality of supervision
  • To explore doctoral students’ perception of the skill development gained through their research work
  • To explore doctoral students’ perception of the University climate
  • To explore doctoral students’ expectations of the supervision process, skill development and university climate

Contact details:
Prof Zodwa Motsa
Tel: 00 25 111 435 0080
E-mail: motsazgt@unisa.ac.za