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College of Natural Science has reviewed the curricula of two of its new master programs i.e. MSc in Wildlife Management and MSc in Medical Entomology & Disease Vector Control in a daylong meet held at its premises on 14th January, 2014.

Assistant Professor in Biology and Coordinator of PG Studies, Dr Serekebirhan Takele, presenting the curriculum of MSc in Wildlife Management, said, ‘‘Wildlife management is the art and science of managing wildlife populations and their habitats while being cognizant of the attitudes of local communities’’.

This program, he said, is highly relevant to managing Ethiopia’s vast wilderness areas and species’ richness with a high rate of endemism. Its overarching goal is to impart higher education to nation’s youth to play meaningful roles in biodiversity stewardship as biologists, wildlife managers, park rangers, and conservationists in government, development and private sectors.’’
Dr Serekebirhan’s presentation was well taken; he also noted the several comments and suggestions made by the faculty to improve the program curriculum and its course content.
Mr Fikadu Massebo, lecturer, Dept of Biology and doctoral candidate at the University of Bergen, Norway, has presented the second program, MSc (Biology) in Medical Entomology and Disease Vector Control (DVC).
‘‘It’s a program with far-reaching benefits to Ethiopia’s public health system, considering maladies such as Malaria and Leishmaniasis afflicting millions of its citizens,’’ he said.
Mr Fikadu pointed out several salient features of the program including 30% reservation for female candidates. His detailed presentation elicited much interest from faculty members.
Interestingly, AMU has already bagged funding to run the program along with a consortium of international health organizations led by public health experts from University of Bergen.
These new program curricula will soon be forwarded to eminent scientists in the respective fields for external review before they can be launched in the upcoming semester.
By Philips Joseph