Development of an industry-tailored telecommunications engineering study program: Approaches, experiences and insights from Ethiopia

A robust telecommunications sector is now generally considered an essential driver for economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing economies of African, including Ethiopia. To that end, high quality engineering education with strong practical (and local) relevance is key to unlocking the benefits of telecommunications solutions. However, the engineering education offered by mainstream academic study programs in local high education institutions (HEIs) is limited in this perspective due to the gap that exists between the curricula and the realities of the local telecommunications industry. We describe the contextual background including the factors that led to development of the study program. Furthermore, we present the approach adopted in the program design and describe briefly approach used to formulate the structure and content of the resulting two-track Telecommunications Engineering study program. Thereafter, we present the study program and provide some early feedback from the program stakeholders (students and instructors) in the first year in which this program has been active. While there is an overall positive feedback on the program, so challenges remain in the program implementation (e.g. availability of suitable laboratory facilities). Moreover, we use the concluding discussions in the article to underline the need for more regular curricula or course updates for study program to keep pace with the increased pace of telecommunications standards evolutions.