It’s the first of its kind

By Merga Yonas

California’s Lincoln University opened its MBA program in Ethiopia on Tuesday.

The university accepts students for extension classes. In partnership with New Generation University, Lincoln University picked Ethiopia on the basis of local demand.

The evening programs provides rare opportunities for working professionals to pursue their education while staying employed, Charles Maples (Ph.D.), adjunct professor from Lincoln University told The Reporter.

The process to bring the university to Ethiopia took two years. There was a bureaucratic procedure to pass through the regulations. The university came here with projectors, laptops, texts and all the needed educational materials, Abetu Melaku, executive program director with university, told The Reporter.

The university plans to train a minimum of 25 students for the year 2010/11. As the university operates on the basis of a pilot program, the students are expected to pay 7,000 dollars a term. In a week’s time four lecturers from Lincoln University will take on the class. These lecturers will go back to their home bases and others will replace them from the same place, Abetu added.

“The millions of dollars that Ethiopians spend for transportation, accommodation and living allowances, not to mention the high tuition fee, will be saved while the flow of hard currency overseas will be tackled to some extent,” Charles told more than 20 students who attended the orientation course on Monday at the new generation university premises.

Lincoln University is an independent, private institution of higher learning founded in 1919. In addition to Ethiopia, currently the university is also running evening classes in Nigeria, Serbia, China, Vietnam and Canada.

EthiopianReporter