Hawassa University president, Dr. Ayano Berasso, received his Excellency Mr. Ranjeet Kunar, Second Secretary of Embassy of India in Ethiopia on August 1, 2023.

The president welcomed Mr. Kunar and his associate Arun Kumar, from Embassy of India, where he expressed his gratitude for the collaborations between different Indian universities, especially on staff capacity building through scholarships. He also thanked the HU expatriate staff, Dr. Nitin Prabhakar, a Craniofacial surgeon and Dr. Dhara Dwivedi, a Maxillofacial pathologist, at HU for their valuable services at Hawassa university and efforts to expand institutional partnership between HU and other universities in India on matters of mutual interest. Dr. Ayano remarked that HU is transitioning towards an autonomous research university which requires a serious staff capacity building strategy for the its predominantly young academics.

His Excellency Mr. Kunar, on his part, thanked HU's president and staff for their time and the positive longstanding partnerships with the Indian embassy in Ethiopia and Universities. He explained that the Ministry of Education in India wants to expand international collaborations with relevant Ethiopian universities on different material and staff capacity building schemes. He promised that the Embassy will serve as a bridge connecting relevant Indian universities to partner with Hawassa university on different professional capacity building strategies including medicine and health sciences, one of the tope priorities of HU.

Dr. Mebratu Mulatu, Director of Collaborative Projects at HU, presented a brief profile of Hawassa university where priority areas for research and collaboration were pinpointed.