The Addis Ababa University (AAU) is under strong criticism as it is said to reserve many of its postgraduate positions for teachers and representatives of government and public institutions. The university, however, refutes the complaint by saying it is giving chances to whoever is qualified, meets the standards set and passes the exams given by every graduate school of the institution.

At the moment, master’s admissions to the various programs of the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) are determined by the School themselves. All candidates have to apply at the Associate Registrar for Admissions, the Registration and Scheduling of the University. After going through this process, many candidates were disappointed not to see their names on the list for this year exam.

One student who is registered at the Addis Ababa University School of business and economics told Capital that the school prevented him to sit in for the exam, after fulfilling the entire requirement set by the university.

"I am really disappointed by the Addis Ababa University’s move to prevent me to gain more knowledge," Samson Syoum said "I feel like they made me finish the entire requirement just to take advantage of the process and collect as much money as possible from the private candidates," he accused the university.

AAU collects about 80 birr registration fee from anyone who wants to be admitted to the masters program. "If they cannot accommodate the number of applicants why do they post an advertisement for registration for all, in the first place," he questioned the university’s motives.

Communication head of the AAU, Emrakeb Assefa admits the university has allocated the whole post graduates program last year to degree holder lecturers working for government institutions as requested by the Ministry of Education.

This was done to build the capacity of teachers required for the new universities opened recently by the ministry, she said.

At the moment, the number of lecturers in Ethiopian universities has reached 17,064, but only 11,238 of them are currently teaching, while others are pursuing further education and many of them are in the AAU.

But now, she said: "the university is open to all without any priority given to anyone and this year, we have registered applicants from every walk of life."

AAU graduated 10,413 students this year, from 23 different colleges, faculties, schools, and institutes. These numbers include fifteen with a Doctor of Philosophy degree, 2,244 with a master’s degree, and 8,254 with a bachelor’s degree. Of the graduates, 2,610 are female. --Capital