Bahir Dar University (, BDU) is a

public research university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

Bahir Dar Bahir Dar () is the capital city of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Bahir Dar is one of the leading tourist destinations in Ethiopia, with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river. The city is known for its wide avenues li ...

, capital of the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region (), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people, Amhara, Awi people, Awi, Xamir people, Xamir, Argobba people, Argobba, a ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. The university, with two institutes in diploma programs until 1966, is credited to training distinguished scientists and notable public servants. BDU began offering bachelor's degree programs in 1966 and continues to expand its research and teaching in all fields and levels of study, including PhD programs. The official slogan of the university is "Wisdom at the source of the Blue Nile". Currently the university has five colleges, four institutes, seven faculties, two academies, and two schools.

Sports

The Bahir Dar University has a 25,000-capacity stadium on its campus, named Bahir Dar University Stadium, in

. It is used mostly for association football matches. It is also sometimes used for athletics.

Establishment

Bahir Dar University was created from the merger of two former higher institutions. The first was Bahir Dar Polytechnic Institute, which formed one of the faculties of the university, was established in 1963 under the technical cooperation between the Government of

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the Imperial Government of Ethiopia. The objective of the institute was to train skilled technicians in the fields of Agro-Mechanics, Industrial Chemistry and Metal,

Textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

, Electrical and

Wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

Technologies. The Institute had to undergo number of program changes within the area of technology until the commencement of the Engineering degree program 1996. Throughout these program changes, the institute did all what it could to supply the labor market with the best technicians who are now running most of the businesses in the industrial, educational, agricultural and other sectors. The other institution of higher learning was Bahir Dar Teachers College, which had been established more than three decades ago. Its original name was the Academy of Pedagogy, and it was created in 1972 by the tripartite agreement of the Imperial Government,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

, and

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

and started actual work in the following year under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts. Its general objective was to train multi-purpose primary education professionals capable of adopting primary education to rural life and rural development. Its specific objectives were to train primary school teacher trainers, supervisors, educational leaders, adult education organizers and community development agents. Soon after its beginning, however, the program only focused on offering pedagogics as a major area of study and

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

, English, Geography and Mathematics as minor courses. Later, diploma programs were introduced when in 1996 the diploma offering departments were raised to degree level. All in all the college provided instructors to the different levels of the education sector through its regular and extension programs. The two institutions were integrated into Bahir Dar University following the Council of Ministers regulation no. 60/1999. The university was inaugurated on May 6, 2000, and the Polytechnic Institute and the Teachers College became the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Education, respectively. In addition, the university added two more faculties, that of Business and Economics and the faculty of Law, which were established in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Bahir Dar University was officially inaugurated in May 2001. The university is one of the largest institutions in Ethiopia, it is home to 52,830 students, dispatched in 104 undergraduates disciplines, 176 masters and 86 PhD programs.

Enrollment

The university projects an enrollment of over 53,000 students in the academic year beginning in October 2015. As of 2016, the university enrolled 52,830 students.

Academics

Bahir Dar University is organized into Faculty, Colleges, Institutes, Schools, and Academy.www.bdu.edu.et
/ref>

Institutes

* Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, * Ethiopian Institutes of Textile and Fashion Technology * Institute of Land Administration.

Colleges

* College of Agriculture and Environment * College of Medicine and Health Sciences * College of Business and Economics * College of

Natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

Academics

* Maritime Academy and Sport Academy.

Schools

* School of Law, School of

Earth Sciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

* School of

Computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

and

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

* School of

Civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

and Water Resources Engineering * School of

Mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

and

Industrial Engineering Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...

* School of

Chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

and Food Engineering.

Faculties

* Faculty of Computing * Educational and Behavioural Sciences (the oldest) * Faculty of Humanities * Faculty of Social Sciences.

Programmes

Besides the disciplines already listed, Bahir Dar also has an institute of Textile and Garment and Maritime Academy, the only ones in Ethiopia, as well as College Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Moreover, the university has started postgraduate programmes in the fields of mathematics, pedagogical science, Amharic, physics, media and communications. It has also started the Institute of Land Administration. There are currently plans to add other postgraduate fields of study. The Engineering Faculty has the following departments: Automotive Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering, Textile Engineering, water resources engineering and Food and biochemical technology departments. The university has BSc, MSc and PhD postgraduate programme in all fields. It is known by first Technical University in the Country. The Land Administration Program of Bahir Dar University, started in 2008, is the first of its kind in Ethiopia. The themes of the program are: land law, land dispute resolution mechanisms, land valuation and compensation techniques, modern land measurement and registration, land certification and updating, cadastre and computer mapping, as well as land tenure studies. This demand-driven training program is to enable sustainable management of land resources through ensuring security of tenure among land holders.

Memorandum of Understanding

* MOUs with Rajalakshmi Engineering College,

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

.Memorandum of Understanding

Notable alumni

References

External links

Official website of Bahir Dar University
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 2001 2001 establishments in Ethiopia Universities and colleges in Amhara Region Bahir Dar

Sports

Establishment

Enrollment

Academics

Institutes

Colleges

Academics

Schools

Faculties

Programmes

Memorandum of Understanding

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links