Ethiopian University Capacity: Findings of Piloting the Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool

Ethiopian higher education in recent years has realized impressive quantitative growth in public higher education. However, the sector is also facing numerous challenges such as shortage of funding, shortage of qualified staff, programs lacking labour market relevance, limited research and community service output, gender issues and lack of adequate quality assurance. The quality of university leadership and management is considered a critical success factor in overcoming these challenges, especially where strategic planning and organisational capacity development are involved. Providing management information on the actual status of university organizational capacity aims to enhance managerial decision making. Organizational capacity assessment tools (OCAT) aim to provide management with this kind of information. The OCAT-project, as part of the EP-Nuffic funded University Leadership and Management Capacity Development project, aimed to develop an OCAT for Ethiopian New Public Universities. This paper informs on the findings and recommendations of piloting this tool at two Ethiopian universities belonging to the second generation of universities. The next paragraph introduces the capacity concept and capacity framework used in assessing university capacity. Then, in paragraph three the data-collections is described. The findings of using the OCAT in two universities are described and discussed in paragraph four. The policy brief ends with conclusions and recommendations resulting from the study. Part of the text in this paper draws from the document describing OCAT (Van Deuren, Abay & Mohammed, 2015).