The university

Background

Hawassa University (HU) was established four and a half decades ago with the opening of 'Awassa College of Agriculture'- ACA in 1976. HU has become a full-fledged university, at the turn of the 21^st. Century. Specifically, the name HU was coined in 2000, following the fusion of ACA with two other colleges, namely 'Wondo Genet College of Forestry' - WCF- (established in 1978) and 'Dilla College of Teacher Education & Health Sciences'- DCTEHS (established in 1996). However, the three colleges: ACA, WCF and DCTEHS were collectively known as 'Debub University' for less than a decade before the formation of HU. 

Currently, HU has two Institutes & eight Colleges scattered in seven campuses, namely: College of Agriculture (CoA), Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources (WGCF-NR), College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS), Main Campus, Awada Campus, The Institute of Technology and Daye Campus. Currently, HU is running more than 90 undergraduate and around 120 graduate (masters, specialty and doctoral) programmes.  

HU has a total of 7037 staff, of which 1630 are academic and 5443 are administrative. Whereas currently, HU has a student population of 43, 638 in the regular and continuing and distance education sessions both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.  

When it comes to collaboration and partnership, HU has signed over one hundred (100) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with different institutions across the globe. Out of the total, currently, there are 61 active collaborative projects at HU.

The signing of MOUs and forging partnerships and collaborations with various institutions have enormous advantages for HU not only in terms of capacity building but also to improve the standard of education and research, the production and dissemination of knowledge and delivery of community service.

Mission and Vision