By Sileshi Yilma/ Public & International Relations Directorate
An in-house review workshop on a draft postgraduate supervision guideline took place on July 3, 2014 at Haramaya University’s (HU) Resource Center.
During the occasion, Dr. Abi Tadesse, dean of School of Graduate Studies (SGS), said that the draft guideline was prepared on the feedbacks collected on the training arranged for postgraduate supervisors in April 2012 at HU.
The experiences of local as well as oversea universities were included and the guideline aims to ensure that students receive good supervision and the supervisory relationship is enhanced, Dr. Abi added.
Dr. Girma Amente, president of HU, on his part stressed that developing a guideline is just a starting point, not an end by itself.
“The guideline should be revised regularly in the future,” Dr. Girma advised adding that research topics which are picked up by students should also fit the thematic areas developed by the University.

The draft guideline was presented to participants, drawn from various colleges of HU, by Dr. Mashila Dejene, chairperson of the team that that produced the draft document. Following this, three HU internal reviewers, Dr. Nigussie Dechasa, Dr. Tesfahun Kebede, and Dr. Jemal Haji, made their presentations on what they believe should be included and corrected in the draft postgraduate supervision guideline.
After the internal reviewers’ presentations, various reflections and discussions were made by participants of the in-house review workshop.

The draft guideline is expected to be presented to HU’s Board and if approved, it will be implemented in the next academic year, Dr. Girma has indicated in his speech.
According to the document the information HU Online received from SGS, the School was established in 1979 with four graduate programs, all in agriculture. Since then, SGS has been expanding both in number and students.
Currently, there are 62 Masters and 14 PhD programs at HU. The University hopes that the new MSc and PhD programs in the pipeline will lift the existing figures by the next year.
According to the SGS, close to 4,000 graduates, 63 of which being PhDs, have been produced by HU so far.