Wolaita Sodo University

Historical Background of WSU

Wolaita Sodo University is one of the recently established government higher education institutions, which were the results of the capacity building strategies undertaken by the Ministry of Education in order to enhance the number of universities and to alleviate the shortage of educated man power in the country at large. The University is found at a town Wolaita Sodo, which is around 390 kilometers away towards South from the capital Addis Ababa.

Based on the underpinning public request as well as the Government’s wish, it was decided to establish the University at its current location Wolaita Sodo. The university was officially inaugurated on March 24, 2007. After a while, the firstly completed phase of the construction provided the basis for operation of Wolaita Sodo University college, as it was first named, that received its first batch, 801 (609 Male and 192 female) students in four faculties and sixteen departments. Out of these numbers, 569 (481 male and 88 female) of them completed their studies and graduated with a BSc and B.A. degrees on July 18, 2009.

Meanwhile, the University has gone through a series of developments since its establishment as a higher learning institution. Due to the great demand of trained man power in the region as well as in the country at large, the university has witnessed tremendous expansion in terms of fields of study. In the academic year 2008, the former Faculty of Education came apart in to two faculties namely the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities and the Faculty of Natural and Computational Science. And, the School of Law was added at the same year. Furthermore, the Faculty of Engineering and Technology was also established in 2009 for further diversity of the training programs of the university. Thus, currently, the university offers undergraduate programs in 5 Faculties and 2 Schools, comprised of 22 departments.

The other landmark with in the short history of the university was the launching of Continuing Education Programs in the weekend as well as summer in service trainings in 2008. Currently, under this program, different fields of study in six faculties, namely Natural and Computational Science, Social Science and Humanities, Business and Economics, Agriculture, Engineering and Health Sciences are running at B.Sc. and BA degree level.

The university, apart from the expansion of its training programs, has been actively involved in research activities, primarily in the fields of Agriculture. Through the course of its few years of age, the institution has also been working to establish linkages with national and international organizations to strengthen its academic, research and outreach activities. As one of the pioneers, the Faculty of Agriculture has been making maximum efforts to develop and release several research results. However, the research and outreach activities of the university in the fields other than agriculture are not strong as most of the faculties are at infancy stage and lack the necessary manpower and experience. Thus, there is an urgent need for the university to make efforts to link its academic programs to its research and outreach activities in order to make its training programs relevant to the needs of the stakeholders and the country at large. This requires the need to make proper linkages with various stakeholders that include the rural community, urban dwellers, the private sector, governmental organizations and non-governmental organization at national and international levels.

Wolaita Sodo University is now functioning on its main campus Gandaba Campus, where the first Gravestone was laid. This campus is located on the way to Arbaminch at around 390 km South of Addis Ababa. It is where the offices of the management of the institution are located. The Ottona Campus, where the second gravestone of the university was laid, is currently on the progress and meant for the Faculty of Health Sciences after the completion of its construction.

Besides all, the university actively involves in divergent mainstreaming community practices and has also gained considerable achievements, particularly on environmental protection. With in the last two years, nearly one million seedlings were raised in the University compound and planted in various surrounding lands by the university students and the local community. Thus, through the course of such an actor movement initiated by an instructor Yohannes Gizaw, various lands which had been very harsh and unstable have become green.

Contact:

• P.O. Box 138
• City: Wolaita Sodo
• Telephone: 251465514417/4586
• Fax: 251465515113