Ten Years Strategic Plan (2004-2013)

Execu ive Summary The policies of the Ethiopian government and the globalisation process have not only created a great demand for the university graduates but also made the operating environment of the university quite dynamic. Therefore. it has become necessary for DU to build and enhance its internal strengths and overcome the limitations to utilize the opportunities in the best way and to cope up with the emerging challenges. Hence. the University President formed a taskforce. which in turn formed committees at the faculty level to develop a strategic plan that could show the future direction of development for the university. The vision of the Debub University is to be an institution of higher learning with its own self-sustaining system and a centre of excellence in teaching, research, extension and consultancy services. contributing to sustained development and improved livelihood of the society. The missions of the University are to promote DU activities in terms of knowledge and technology creation and transfer. skill development and effective entrepreneurship. and inculcate responsible attitude for the betterment of the society: and to contribute towards the development of the country at various levels through teaching. research. extension. communication and consulrancy services. The major core values include integrity. gender sensitivity. quality. efficiency and effectiveness. equity responsibility. accountabi lity. democrarisarion and openness 'transparency. The main goals of the university are to produce well-qualified human resources. promote client oriented technology skill and attitude through research. training and to develop self-reliance. Internal strength and limitations and external opportunities were analysed with a view to investigating the operating environment of Debub University. Internally. the range of strengths and limitations related to administration and management. academic and research capacities and facilities were identified. Similarly. external opportunities and threats were ana lysed in relation to government policy environment. donors' collaboration and partnership. globalization and various socio-economic problems. Based on these analyses (SWOT) the most important critical issues were identified. These critical issues need to be tackled to achieve t~1e afore-mentioned university vision. mission and goals. Therefore. based on the critical issues obtained on vision. mission and goals of the university. ten objectives were set and strategies were designed to achieve the objectives. The major objectives are to produce qualified and competent professionals. expand the capacity of the university. employ adequate number of competent academic staff cover substantial part of the education cost from internally generated revenues. enhance efficient and equitable resource utilization system. and provide educational assistance for female and physically challenged students and to the students of disadvantaged regions of the country. The strategies to achieve the afore-mentioned objectives are stated in the document The University management. and a monitoring team that will be established within the University system will closely monitor the implementation of strategic plan. The team will report its findings and recommendations to the appropriate organs of the University. Evaluation of implementation of the strategic plan will be undertaken at appropriate intervals i.e .. annually to see if early and gradual impacts are being observed so that lessons for improvement could be drawn. Milestones and expected changes and impacts will be identified and. based on these: improvements will be determined throughout the implementation. Through out the implementation process the University will actively involve all the relevant stakeholders.