Dear Hawassa University community,
It gives me a great honor and pleasure to extend my best wishes for the Ethiopian New Year 2015 to the entire HU community. First, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to all of you for your incredible efforts in making the last academic year a success by overcoming all the challenges we had encountered.
We concluded the 2014 EC (2021/22) academic year with significant achievements in our core areas of engagement: teaching-learning, research and community services, and we even made remarkable contributions to the national causes of timely demands such as extending our support to: the Ethiopian national defense forces, displaced citizens because of the conflict in northern Ethiopia, restoration of other higher education and health institutions in the aftermath of the destructive conflict and more, all due to the combined efforts and passionate commitment of the academic and administrative staff as well as the active participation and cooperation of our beloved students. Hence, I would say thank you all!
My sincere gratitude also extends to our expatriate staff and international students, visiting scholars, as well as the consistent support of our domestic and international partners for their meaningful contributions to our overall success.
Wishing you all a very peaceful and fruitful new academic year, I would like to send out my message which is directed towards the three pillars of HU’s mission and vision which are essential to realize our broader mission of becoming one of the top ten research universities in Africa by 2030.
Teaching-learning: is one of the most essential activities that HU has been engaged in with the ultimate goal of producing internationally competent and qualified graduates over the past four and half decades. Last year’s academic calendar was crowded with different programs pushed out of the routine because of the residual effects of covid-19 and the unprecedented conflict in northern Ethiopia. Consequently, we had to deal with multiple schedules to compensate for the missed time tables, and we even had to organize graduation ceremonies twice in a year. However, we stayed resilient and managed it well thanks to the commitment of our staff and all stakeholders. More than six thousand graduates had successfully completed their studies and graduated from HU in 2014 EC, and this is a significant accomplishment for HU community who devoted their time, energy and resources to make the dreams of our graduates a reality.
Research: In addition to the thematic areas identified by HU to prioritize areas of research and technology transfer, a large number of individual and joint endeavors were launched by the staff and researchers from partner institutions in 2014 E.C. There is a growing need and focus on this area as HU is now transitioning towards becoming a Research University as opposed to being a comprehensive university before. Thus, we are working on extensive research engagements involving our academic staff and graduate students, and there is a promising development in collaborative projects with all our local, regional and international partners over the years. Two of our research journals have been nationally accredited by the MoE in 2014 EC, a milestone that will encourage us to put more effort in other emerging journals for accreditation and strengthening those two. In general, there is a need for us to work harder on the direction of knowledge dissemination and publication by ensuring the quality and relevance of our research undertakings in the new year 2015 EC.
Community Engagements: comprise a wide range of activities and professional support rendered by individuals and/or groups from HU to the surrounding community. Hawassa University has been engaged in diversifying and strengthening community services delivered to the nearby society directed towards demand-driven and relevant areas of intervention over the last academic year. Still, we need to work harder in the new academic year to improve our community services by actively engaging the beneficiaries for better impacts and sustainability.
At last, I would like to reiterate my best wishes to all our HU community for the 2015 Ethiopian New Year.
May the new academic year be a year of success and more accomplishments for you all!
Sincerely,
Dr. Ayano Berasso (President)
