Background of the Department:

Dire Dawa University (DDU) was established in 1999 and  aspires to be a premium choice in Ethiopia and among the top applied science universities in Africa by 2030. It has been conducting teaching-learning missions with various programs, including the Anesthesia Department, which was established in 2006. The main reason for the establishment of the department was to fulfill the shortage of qualified anesthesia professionals in the country.  The role of the higher education sector in a country’s overall development typically involves producing competent citizens as the primary responsibility.

A country with competent citizens guarantees development paths. Recent advances in education and  frequent changes require future anesthesia graduates to be more competent and task-oriented. The Federal Ministry of Education (MoE) announced an exit exam for all undergraduate programs, starting in 2022/2023, to align with the national roadmap from 2018 to 2030. In our department, in collaboration with the DDU, we adopted the competency-based curriculum in 2022 by the MoE for generic ANESTHESIA programs which are more than 70% clinical practical. The program requires 9 semester (4.5 years duration and Year-based), and Students must complete each course (Total =328 ECTs).

Warm regards,

Amelmasin Faris

 Department Head,

College of Medicine and Health Science,

Dire Dawa University