Official Structure

Works under the Vice President for Community Service and University Industry Partnership, together with other Directorates such as community service, Community Radio and STEM.

 1.     Year of establishment

The office was established in the year 2007, entitled as the Community Oriented Practical Education Coordinating Office, by providing an emphasis on teachers education in secondary schools. Gradually, with continually reviewed and refined duties and responsibilities, the office has been called University and Industry Partnership and Alumni Management Directorate since 2011. After the Technology and Innovation council came in to being at national level with the objective of promoting national competitiveness; university-Industry partnership has also become a prominent issue or agenda of higher education, where Wollega University is one. Thus the Directorate was established on a meaningful socio economic ground. 

 2.     Vision

The Directorate aspired to be one of the leading University Industry Partnership Directorate in Ethiopia, in establishing strong University-Industry linkages that enhance mutual benefit of the partners. 

 3.     Mission  

We exist to build sustainable collaboration between Wollega University and  public and private potential partners, on mutually identified core issues of growth and developments to enable them achieve their targets through accelerating problem oriented research and inquiry, exchange of experiences and resources, capacity development, consultancy, technology transfer, internship and externship as well as practical education on the basis of free exchange of ideas, selective prioritization and commonly planned issues.   

 4.     Core values:

Shared values have a power to serve as a guide posts for managerial decisions and actions. They can shape employee behavior, communicate what the organization expects of its members and it is a means or way to build team spirit in organizations. With these basic facts, the University-Industry partnership of Wollega University workers is governed by the following core values:

•      Customer satisfaction: providing quality personal and material services.
•           Integrity: to be ethically honest with fairness.
•        Entrepreneurial Spirit: Upholding and inculcating the spirit of well organized work culture. 
•      Student success: providing comprehensive and innovative support programs and services that assist student’s academic and personal success.
•       Community focused: our student’s staff, alumni and partners are our greatest asset and we value their contributions.
•         Team work: sharing sense of purpose, process, commitment and agree to strengthen the ties.
•        Transparency and Accountability: Allowing to sense the truth and responsible for the decision and actions taken by workers.
•         Continuous   learning: consistent development of knowledge, skill and attitude.
•        Diversity: inclusion of someone regardless of gender, ethnicity, national origin, relation, disability etc…
•         Empowerment: giving power and authority to subordinates to do or control something.
•    Encouraging: to persuade somebody to do something efficiently and effectively through rewarding, acknowledgment, motivation and in other similar ways. 

$15.     Description of Roles, Duties, Responsibilities and core activities for 2015/16.

Universities are being positioned as strategic assets in socio economic development of countries. This fact does take place if strategies and tools are devised to link higher education institutions with potential partners. Through strong linkages and collaborations it is practically possible to enhance researches, innovation and their disseminations. Partnership with different entities enables universities to access and pooling of human, physical and financial resources. As such, to serve the purpose, the Directorate has identified and established the following leading mandates.

•        Establishing formal linkages with industries and other potential organizations with in the national development track;
•          Managing and coordinating the practical attachment and internship programmers achieved through partnership;
•         Organizing linkage forums and facilitate   the joint venture of collaborators;
•         Propose human resource, finance and materials necessary for effective implementations of agreements;
•        Guide and consult the task force and technical committee established to effect the joint tasks of collaborators;
•         Enhance the capacities of the actors through training, seminars conferences and the like.
•         Arrange experience exchanges on bench marked organizations;
•         Indentifying industrial problems, and bring to the university with research fund, so that the university faculty and students undertake research ;
•         Notifying the public status of the performance of the partnership.
•         Enhancing awareness of the external and internal community on partnership (partnerships among Universities, Industries and other organizations.)
•         Developing guidelines, procedures, manuals and facilitate the partnership.
•         Facilitate work based learning in collaboration with Colleges and departments (specially by engaging instructors and students).
•         Conducting periodical follow up providing support, monitoring and evaluating the planned activities.
•         Facilitate reward and incentive system to make the linkage effective.

Within this circumstance, the Directorate has developed various guidelines, procedures, templates, manuals for core areas of collaboration and potential partners, produced formats supporting the actual implementation of its programmers.  Moreover, the Directorate which initially conducted its duty with a single director currently has one Associate Dean at every College and school level with a responsibility to effect community service and University industry linkage.  Recently, an extended structure has developed and submitted to the president office to assign 3 senior experts under the Director of the directorate to manage the bold mandates of the unit. These are, some among the major accomplishments. Furthermore, job description and job specification at the Directorate and College Associate Deans of the community service and Linkage level were prepared and applied. The Alumni Association document was produced and the Association was found in 2015. Tracer study on graduates of Wollega University (till 2014) had taken place and the result was reported. Commencing from the year 2013 on ward, we have been giving additional life skill trainings for prospective graduates. Internship and practical attachment programmers have been designed and put in to effect for the students and realized to provide work experiences in different organizations and centers while students are studying at the University.

Service standards are prepared and applied at the Directorate and College levels in order to enhance customer service delivery. Strategic plan and annual plan of the office prepared in line with the principle of BSC by giving emphasis for the four perspectives. The philosophy of KAIZEN is being implemented and it is at its infancy level. Team work has taken and accepted as the usual means of operating, monitoring and evaluating performances and the planned activities as required. To scale up the capabilities of the staff and improve the quality of services delivered, staff development had taken place through trainings, experience exchanges, field visits of the benchmarked and through well organized national conferences. Finally, my office like to mention that our University Industry Linkage partnerships allow us to form collaboration with sister universities, research institutes, Industries, Middle level Colleges, the surround community and professional association and bodies.

Based on these realities, Wollega University has been linked with several domestic and few foreign organizations, institutions and centers. An attempt of collaborations among Universities under Oromia region has been taking place by giving emphases on strategic issues of regional and national socio-economic developments. Some projects which were emanated from the linkage were designed and began to be implemented.  With these experiences, by the year 2015/16. The university Industry Partnership planned.

•         To extend its linkage with foreign and domestic partners.  
•        To effect the usual internship and practical attachments in a more efficient manner;
•        To revise and polish the former directives, procedures and formats;
•     To strengthen the Alumini Association as far as it attain the level to support the mother institution and the association itself;
•         To improve the organizational structure able to carry the continually growing mandates of the directorate;
•        To provide quality services to improve customer satisfaction;
•        To scale up the management of the internship externship and practical attachments;
•    To enhance team work with true spirit of partnership and
•      To provide close supervision supports and make strong follow-ups and conduct strong evaluation with motivations for the success of the goals. 
•  

$6.     Core grants and linkages:

•        By the year 2015 we had achieved ETL Birr 30,000 grants from Oromia region development Enterprises Super vision Agency. More than 900,000 Eth. Birr for Guduru Ranch and sustain and conserve the types of Horo-Guduru cattle types.
•         We have foreign linkages with different organizations and higher education institution at China, India, Korea, UK and the Netherlands. Correspondingly, we managed to have several domestic collaboration with research institutes, centers, industries and others private and governmental organization.

$7.     Achievements /results of the partnership:

•        Various projects were designed and being implemented.
•        Graduates Tracer study has completed and the result of the study was presented, currently it is on the verge of publication.
•           Internship, practical attachment and field visits were facilitated and well managed.
•    Educative programmers were presented through Community Radio of the University for the surrounding community.
•      Experience exchange had taken place among the partners and on bench marked institutions.
•     Several trainings (capacity development) projects were designed and put into effect which was capable to enhance the attitudes and talents of the workers.
•          Partners had achieved scholarship (WU had given scholarship especially for workers at government offices.)
•         Joint researches have been conducted.
•         Material support had been gained.
•         Higher education opportunities were expanded.
•         Seminars, conference and symposiums have taken place with the collaboration partners.