GROWING PAIN: Ethiopia is pushing engineering education harder than any other country in Africa, creating challenges for its academics

摘要

Ethiopia is the oldest nation in sub-Saharan Africa, but from the engineering dean's office at Adigrat University, everything seems terribly new and young - including its occupant. At the age of 30, Kiros Teklehaimanot has returned to his hometown, some 560 miles north of the capital, Addis Ababa, to hang his master s degree on the wall of a university so freshly built that the first engineers will only graduate next year. The slight, wide-eyed chemical engineer seems undaunted by the challenge that lies before him: The school he heads is already trying to educate more engineering students than UCLA or Berkeley. Within five years, enrollment is slated to surpass Americas largest engineering school. "Regardless of age," says Teklehaimanot, "if you have the commitment, the dream can be fulfilled."