By Dr Tarekegn Yoseph Samago, Dean of College of Agriculture, Hawassa University
The NICHE-ETH-179 project contributed in many areas to date.
CURRICULUM
An LMNA was conducted (with Q-Point and HEDBEZ), essential as we could determine what skills the labour market needs and could adjust our curriculum to this. The new food safety quality MSc curriculum and the PhD human nutrition are now up and running.
TRAINING STAFF
Three staff members (2 women and 1 man) are doing their PhD abroad and the university and college staff were given the opportunity to attend different training courses abroad and in Ethiopia. Among the different training courses were the gender based training (for university and college staff), the management training on change management and leadership (Q-Point & CINOP) and the problem-based learning training.
LABORATORY
Lab assessment group shot
We invested in our lab and now have nutrition lab equipment like HPLC (high-pressure liquid chromatography detection) machines and assessors that will help us to achieve the set goals. The lab has also been renovated.
PROJECT SUPPORT
A value chain and pilot project was set up, three staff research projects are supported and four community services projects are supported.
Visit to Ghent University
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE MISSIONS
An exchange of experiences was possible during mission visits within and outside Ethiopia, such as Bahir Dar University – where we visited the lab and now share experiences with them -, Kenya (incubation centre), the Netherlands and Belgium.
An interesting visit was Ghent University, where we saw how the lab is involved in nutritional research. Also valuable was the visit to CINOP, where we saw how vocational education is organised. Meaningful as well was the visit to HAS Den Bosch, where problem-based learning was highlighted and we saw how students, teachers and businesses work together in various projects (paid for by these businesses).
COMMUNITY SERVICES AND INDUSTRY LINKAGE RELATED CAPACITY
We started working with Yirgalem Agro Industry Park, they will now make use of Hawassa University’s well-equipped and accredited nutrition laboratory.
Yirgalem IAIP
