The number of Ethiopian students who have studied in Norway over the years is very high. Although the Embassy does not have the exact numbers, the mere fact that there are at least 62 Ethiopians who have their Ph.D. from Norway in the Embassy supported program between the Mekele & Hawassa Universities in Ethiopia and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) over the last two decades alone indicates that the number must be in the hundreds nationally (if not more).
23/05/2008 ::
Last year the Presidents of Mekelle and Hawassa universities ( both with an experience of Norway) suggested the establishment of an Ethio-Norwegian alumni. A number of academicians from Norwegian universities have been nurturing the same idea and urged the Embassy to act. In cooperation with the two said universities a reception was held at the Ambassador's residence last Saturday , May 10 to kick off the process of establishing an Ethi-Norwegian alumni. Close to thirty Ethiopians who had studied in Norway at some time attended the reception along with Embassy staff.
In his speech to the participants , A mbassador Jens-Petter Kjemprud said that "Norway has a long standing bilateral relationship with Ethiopia in the Education Sector, particularly higher learning. We are happy to have a critical mass of Ethiopians who did their studies in Norway and are back to serve their Country in different positions. We are in particular happy about the fact that nearly all return to their home country to contribute to development and the running of the country's institutions, as brain drain unfortunately is a problem for Ethiopia". He further said that he hoped the joint session will enable participants to informally discuss, know each other, share experience and add value to the introductory step of establishing a national Alumni network. He said that an Ethiopian in Norway has produced books to learn Norwegian in Amharic and Tigrinya and jokingly said that the books would be distributed to the participants so that they do not forget their Norwegian language skills. The A mbassador also said that an alummni should aim at including participants from other Ethiopian universities as Addis Ababa and others .
The President of Mekelle University, Dr. Mitiku Haile, responded by saying that Mekelle University would cooperate its best to the establishment of an alumni and see how it could benifit best the graduates as well as the country and its institutions. He gave an account of his own time at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) and of the longstanding and good relations with Mekelle University. All participants presented themselves and a number gave an account of special experiences encountered. Someone even said that the close cooperation with UMB had so heavily influenced both Hawassa and Mekelle that there was a certain "Norwegian" touch to the two universities.
The participants exhanged e-mail and other contact adresses and anyone reading this having studied in Norway is urged to get in touch with the Embassy to register. The Embassy will follow up in cooperation with the two Universities.