Jimma University

Brief description

Jimma University (JU) is the second largest and the leading public university in Ethiopia located in Jimma, Ethiopia 346 KM south west of Addis Ababa. It is recognized as the leading national university, as ranked first by the Federal Ministry of Education for five successive years (2009 - 2014) and second in 2015.The establishment of Jimma university dates back to 1952 when Jimma college of Agriculture was founded. The university gets its current name in December 1999 following the amalgamation of Jimma College of Agriculture (founded in 1952) and Jimma Institute of Health Sciences (founded in 1983). It is a pioneer of Community Based Education, where students of all disciplines apply knowledge gained in the classroom and lab directly in the community. Currently the university has five campuses; of which Jimma institute of Technology is one of the biggest campuses with more than 11,000 undergraduate, masters and doctoral students. Of over 50 undergraduate programs, biomedical engineering and dentistry are unique in the country.

Jimma University is a national pioneer to launch the Biomedical Engineering program in 2008 with the aim of addressing the country-wide lack of qualified professionals to provide medical equipment management, design and maintenance. The curriculum is a five year program, with a one semester internship completed in the fourth year and Team training program (TTP) where biomedical engineering students participate in team training programs with medical students and students from other health-related fields.

The Biomedical Engineering department has been working with the Texas children hospital and Rice University through the American International Health Alliance since 2012. It has strong collaboration with local partners like, Addis Ababa University, Tegbareid poly technic college and National Metrology institute of Ethiopia. The Bioinstrumentation and Prototyping student labs of the department have been the center to train Technical staffs of different partners (Tegbareid polytechnic college, Jimma University specialized hospital and Debrebirhan Specialized hospital). The department has planned to launch master’s program in September 2016 in Bioinstrumentation and Biomedical Imaging which is consistent with the strategic direction of the Institute and the department, which places strong emphasis on Practical training, research and teaching programs in a diverse field of specializations.

The department currently has two assistance professors, 16 Lecturers with master’s level (of which two are expatriates), 14 bachelor level assistant lecturers and two technical assistances. The staffs have the experience offering Technical training and service to the south west Ethiopian Health center technicians and Biomedical Engineers.