Major Problems Impeding the Progress of Private Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Private higher education provision in Ethiopia is a recent phenomenon which is at the early stage of development. In the demanding task of building an educational institution, problems emanating from within and without the institutions challenge the efforts of education institutions. However, in order to sustain the efforts for the better, considering the significant contribution the private higher education institutions are making in alleviating the lack of trained human power in Ethiopia, the problems have to be identified and corrective measures should be taken in time. A problem well identified is a problem half solved. Therefore, the purpose of this research paper is to identify and project the major problems encountered by some selected private higher education institutions in this country, and forward likely solutions. The relevant data is gathered from primary sources through interviewing of the people responsible for the academic management of the selected institutions. The selection of the institutions is done based on the type of training they offer and an attempt is made to incorporate a representative sample. Observation made by the researcher is also incorporated in the identification of the problems and in the interpretation and forwarding of the suggestions. The results of this study show that private higher education institutions have faced major problems in the implementation of the new curriculum of TVET programs mainly because there has been no sufficient transitional time to make preliminary preparations and also mainly because the new curriculum presupposes no consideration of the condition of the society's readiness and capacity, which has been explicitly evidenced in the implementation of long stretched classes and apprenticeship. Besides, private higher education institutions still experience major impeding problems, though there have been some changes and improvements during the last five years with regard to accreditation, cooperation, resource management and research endeavors.