Background
The internationalization and collaboration office falls under the structure of the university president. It is a central hub for all global activities of the university and it is dedicated to transforming Arba Minch University (AMU) into a vibrant interconnected center for teaching, learning, and innovation. The office’s primary goal is to empower global mobility, build strategic partnerships, support our international community, and driving global engagement. Thus, the office is typically structured to support these and that are related to internationalization and collaboration.
Mission & vision of the office
The missions and visions of ICO are aligned with the University’s aspirations and mandates assigned by the Ministry of Education.
Vision
AMU aspires to be among the first three and thirty competitive Universities in Ethiopia and Africa respectively and become a well-recognized university in the world in teaching-learning, Research and Community Engagement by 2030. In line with institutional vision, ICO aspires to build strategic cooperation with our international partners in order to expand the spheres of the institution’s visibility and promote its international image, and increase its international engagement and enlarge its sphere of engagement while simultaneously creating an institutional environment conducive for internationalization.
Mission
AMU has a mission of offering relevant and quality education and training, conducting problem-solving and indigenous knowledge-integrated research, and adapting and transferring skills and technologies that have high values to the socio-economic development of the community. To vitally contribute to the success of this mission of AMU, the mission of the ICO is to design and implement plans that bring the different academic, research, and community engagement units towards fostering an international higher education environment by transforming indigenous opportunities into international realities.
Motto
The motto of ICO is derived from the assumptions of Ethiopia’s 10-year development plan that promotes homegrown policy initiatives for the sake of addressing national and international challenges. As a developing state facing several challenges, exploiting domestic potential and using it to realize development plans has been the central tenet of Ethiopia’s foreign policy. At the institutional level also, AMU’s internationalization plan should rely on institutional, local, and national resources and opportunities that can attract foreign funding, technical and technological innovations, and international teaching experiences. Thus, the motto of ICO will be “Turning the Local Opportunities into International Realities”.
Main activities of the ICO
- Preparing the plan of the academic affairs and research and projects internationalization and collaboration per the focus of the university
- Implementing the reporting and the results of the plan to the responsible bodies and collecting feedback.
- Organizing, coordinating, and leading research and projects and academic affairs of the university that are related to internationalization and collaboration
- Realizing the internationalization of research and academic affairs of the university by creating collaborations with national and international institutions.
- Promoting the culture of internationalization among instructors, students, and the university community.
- Assessment of the interest of potential national and international stakeholders facilitating the creation of collaborations for mutual benefits accordingly.
- Ensuring the inclusion of internationalization elements in the designing of new curriculums and the evaluation of ongoing programs.
- Enabling the opening of joint academic programs in collaboration with national and international institutions.
- Supporting instructors and students in their efforts to ensure to secure scholarships, trainings, and practical experiences in national and international institutions.
- Supporting researchers with the provision of national and national calls for project proposals and assist the necessary documents that accompany the submission of complete proposals.
- Enabling the participation of national and international researchers to take part in teaching and learning activities of the university.
- Establishing project application teams across different campuses and disciplines and supporting them to complete and submit proposals
- Preparing memorandum of understanding documents (MoU) for collaboration in the internationalization of research and academic affairs.
- Promoting the participation of national and international intellectuals in the teaching and learning activities of the university.
- Supporting the process of securing visas, residence permits, and other travel documents for foreign nationals who are coming for academic affair collaboration.
- Building the capacity of research and students in the area of collaborative research and projects
- Facilitating and promoting the capacity of the increasing recruitment of international students who want to enroll in different programs.
- Implementing actions that make the stay of international students at our university study in comfortable, peaceful, and fruitful environment.
- Following up the effective implementation of existing MoUs, the signing of new collaboration agreements and renewal of expiring.
- Ensuring the participation of national and international researchers in the development of collaborative research and projects.
- Taking care of travel documents, transport, and accommodation of national and international researchers who are involved in collaborative research and project activities at our university.
Contact Address
Academic Affairs Internationalization and Collaboration Coordinator: Adanech Zemede Woldemariam (PhD in English Language Education)
College of Social Science and Humanities
Arba Minch University
E-mail/AMU Mail:
Mobile: +251928813175
