Background

The initiative of starting a B.Sc. education in Land Administration came from the Environmental Protection, Land Administration and Use Authority (EPLAUA) of the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS). EPLAUA is responsible to co-ordinate and regulate activities related to environmental protection, land administration and land use issues in ANRS. One of its tasks is to develop a new land administration system which gives primarily the farmers better security of user rights to land. This activity was new in Ethiopia and there was no specific land administration education in the country. Because of the lack of professionals in the area of Land Administration, EPLAUA approached Bahir Dar University (BDU) to discuss the possibility of starting an academic education in Land Administration.In order to have international experience, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden was contacted. KTH has been training national land surveyors in land administration since 1932 and has also, since 1996, an international Master of Science (M.Sc.) programme in Land Administration. The M.Sc. programme covers legal and economic issues related to management of land policy, land development and land administration with focus on rights to land, how such rights are linked to infrastructure development. The collaboration programme with KTH started in 2004 within the on-going Sida Amhara Rural Development Programme (SARDP). The aim of this collaboration was to educate teachers at BDU, with the clear intention to start an education programme in Land Administration. The collaboration started by upgrading some of the existing staff to Master’s level. For the intakes from 2004 up to 2008, BDU staffs have been admitted for the M.Sc. in Land Administration programme at KTH. 

Since 2006 Bahir Dar University staff have also attended the M.Sc. in Geodesy and Geomatics programme at KTH. In addition, KTH has trained staff from EPLAUA. Curriculum for a 4 year Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) programme in Land Administration was developed jointly by BDU, KTH and EPLAUA and the B.Sc. programme started in 2006 under the then Faculty of Law. Since November 2007 KTH has been partner in the ongoing “Establishment of the Institute of Land Administration, Bahir Dar University” project. An advisory Board of Study was formed and the first meeting was held in November 2007. The Institute of Land Administration (ILA) was established by the Senate of BDU on 25 January 2008. Dr Firew Tegegne was appointed as Director for the institute on 10 April 2008 and the Chief Technical Advisor, Mrs Benita Nordin, started her assignment on 15 April 2008. ILA is a budget centre as of the Ethiopian fiscal year 2001 (10 July 2008) when the academic staffs who stayed under their mother faculties and departments were transferred to the institute. 

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