Challenges of Ethiopian Higher Educational Institutions in Producing Competent Graduates

Abstract

It has been argued that the current higher education institutions in Ethiopia have gaps in producing graduates that are well-equipped with the necessary knowledge and competences that fit into the actual job market. The purpose of this study was, thus, to investigate the challenges of higher institutions in Ethiopia in producing competent graduates. Descriptive mixed research design was used to describe the phenomenon, while pragmatic paradigm was employed to operate under the assumption that reality encompasses both subjective and objective elements. A multistage stratified random sampling technique was used to select research samples from different universities. Data were collected through questionnaires, interview and document review. The collected data were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistics including inferential analysis. Results reveal that higher institutions of Ethiopia are found to be limited to educating students to achieve minimum learning competences. Besides, the findings confirm that challenges related to curriculum alignment with the job market requirements, digitalizing the education system and instructors’ lecture-based pedagogical and instructional approaches are found to be at the top urgency to be acted on. It has been recommended that there is an urgent call for integrating the teaching-learning practices with the real world market, entrepreneurial needs, problem-solving skills and hands-on experiences.