The Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs
Message from the Academic Vice President
Welcome to the Academic Vice President’s page at Bahir Dar University.
Teaching is a very noble profession for those aspiring continuous professional development and are passionate to prepare well-disciplined, skilled and knowledgeable professionals. That’s why I joined Bahir Dar University as a teacher after serving my people and country in different government sectors for more than a decade.
Before I was elected as the Academic Vice President of Bahir Dar University, I served the University from lecturer to Associate Professor positions and Dean and Vice dean of the College of Science for another decade which proved to me that teaching and mentoring students and serving the academic community in different capacities is a real blessing. As an Academic Vice President, I am responsible for the overall breadth and depth of learning and teaching at all levels and professional development of our faculty at the University level.
Established as one of the core functional units of BDU, the office of the Academic Vice President has the following major divisions:
- School of graduate studies
- School of undergraduate studies
- Registrar and Alumni Management Directorate
- Continuing and Distance Education Directorate
- Library
- Staff affairs Directorate
Bahir Dar University strives to improve access and quality education and spearheads efforts to enhance the relevance of higher education in the nation. It is the home to 18 academic units; five colleges, two faculties, five institutes, five schools, and three academies. It offers training in 113 undergraduate, 187 masters and more than 115 PhD programs in its regular, week-end, summer and distance education programs. As we are envisioning to be a premier research university, we are focusing on strengthening postgraduate programs. We ensure that these programs conform to international quality standards.
We have more than 1920 academic staff who are actively engaged in teaching, research and community service activities.
More than 40 thousand students are currently enrolled in all the programs. We are working hard to ensure that graduates of BDU possess strong disciplinary knowledge, effective problem-solving skills and a strong commitment to achieving shared goals through teamwork. The employability of our graduates is encouraging. A recent tracer study showed that 62% to 88% of the graduates secured jobs within two years of graduation across the different disciplines with an average waiting time to employment ranging from three to eight months. We can proudly say that our graduates are highly competitive in the national job market and national exit exams. The fact that the 2019 class of graduates of Law school at BDU took the first and third positions in the national exit exam is a showcase. This achievement has been consistently demonstrated over the years. In 2026, BDU recorded a 100% exit examination pass rate in seven academic programs and a 95.6% pass rate in one program, reflecting the high quality of education the University provides.
We have more than 55 years of experience in teacher education and we are now a deserved center of excellence in teacher education. Bahir Dar University is well known in launching need based training programs. The Institute of Land Administration of BDU which was established with the initiation of the then Environmental Protection, Land Administration and Use Authority (EPLAUA) of the Amhara National Regional State provides training on the different dimensions of land such as land tenure management, property law, property valuation, land use and development, GIS, cadastral surveying and mapping, urban design and planning, and so on. This is now a center of excellence in the nation and East African region at large.
Institute of Disaster Risk Management & Food Security Studies was established in response to the identified policy gap in human capacity skill and research for the integration of disaster risk management and sustainable development initiatives in the country to change the country’s deep-rooted history of disasters and the past disaster management experience. The fact that BDU is located on the shores of Lake Tana make it to be chosen to train maritime professionals for the global labor market in the shipping industry. These are some of the academic programs unique to Bahir Dar University.
Internationalization is one of our core values. Accordingly, we collaborate in teaching, student supervision, thesis examination, staff and students' mobility, and joint research with many universities and research institutions in the nation and outside. The number of international students is growing rapidly. Currently, we have more than 152 international students.
Contact information
Essey Kebede Muluneh (Prof.),
Office of the Academic Vice President,
Wisdom Tower First Floor, Room Number 114,
Bahir Dar University,
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
Phone (Office): +251 583 20 60 97
Phone (Mobile): +251 932 80 80 02
+251 923 29 73 33