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Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

1. Background

Bahir Dar University

The merging of the Polytechnic Institute and the Pedagogical College on May 6, 2000
formed Bahir Dar University.
Bahir Dar University had ten faculties as on June, 2009. The ten faculties were:

1. Business & Economics Faculty
2. Faculty of Engineering
3. Agriculture & Environmental Sciences Faculty
4. Law Faculty
5. Natural science Faculty
6. Social Science Faculty
7. Humanities Faculty
8. Education and Behavioral science Faculty
9. Medical Faculty
10. Institute of Land administration

Faculty of Education
The former Pedagogical College and now the Education Faculty is a leading pedagogy
institution well known throughout Ethiopia producing teachers who are employed in the
primary and secondary schools throughout Ethiopia. This faculty boasts of highly qualified
faculty members in this discipline.

Faculty of Engineering
The former Polytechnic Institute became the Engineering Faculty of the University. The
Engineering Faculty of Bahir Dar University is one of Ethiopia's oldest educational
institutions. Established in 1963, it is reputed for excellence in engineering and technology.
During the merger with the Pedagogical College into Bahir Dar University, the Polytechnic
Institute was named Engineering Faculty. As on June 2009, the Engineering Faculty had
nine departments in the faculty, which were undergoing the reform by Federal Ministry of
Capacity Building, Engineering Capacity Building Program (ECBP).

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 1

Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

Departments in the Engineering Faculty (as on June, 2009):
1. Chemical Engineering
2. Civil Engineering
3. Computer Science and Engineering
4. Electrical Engineering
5. Food Technology & Food Process Engineering
6. Industrial Engineering
7. Mechanical Engineering
8. Textile Engineering
9. Water Resource & Environmental Engineering

Department of Textile Engineering
In Ethiopia, Bahir Dar University is the only educational institution offering textile
engineering in degree program. The department has a history of more than 40 years. Earlier
the program was only at the advanced diploma level particularly when the department was
under former Ploy Technique Institute.

The textile industry has advanced rapidly in terms of the technology involved, materials
produced and applications. Keeping these in mind, a B.Sc. program in Textile Engineering
was introduced since 1997. The first batch graduated in 2002. The syllabus for the program
incorporates courses relevant to the modern textile industry. The diploma and degree
graduates occupy almost all the top management positions in the textile factories in Ethiopia
and related industry and other institutions.

Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology
Considering the importance of the role of textile and clothing sector to the economic well-
being and industrialization of Ethiopia, the Government of Ethiopia has upgraded the
Department of Textile Engineering to the level of the Institute with the name “Institute of
Textile and Clothing Technology” from July, 2009 and will function separately under the
Bahir Dar University. This up gradation is considered essential in order to develop the
teaching and research infrastructure for the development of the Textile and Clothing
Industry of Ethiopia.

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 2

Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

Mission
• To create an atmosphere of learning in which students acquire knowledge and learn
to apply it properly with due consideration for ethical, ecological and economic issues
• To pursue research and disseminate research findings
• To provide knowledge based technological services to satisfy the needs of society
and industry
• To help in building national capabilities in science, technology, humanities,
management, education and research.

Vision
To become a world class and national model teaching, research and service department in
Textile Science, Engineering and Technology.

TVET educational institutions strive to develop manpower required at the shop-floor
level to implement the technical/technological and engineering decisions taken by the
superiors right at the level of machines, equipments, instruments and processes. TVET
systems will provide the working muscles required for the industrial production processes
and services with adequate understanding of them to promote productivity, quality and cost
reduction.

Textile Industry in Ethiopia
The textile industry is expected to provide critical inputs for quick industrial and economical
development of Ethiopia. In view of this, the actual situation of Ethiopian economy shall be
described first. Textiles are considered as one of the basic commodities in all parts of the
world. The textile and garment manufacturing sector represents one of the major industries
in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government aims to foster rapid export growth through
production of high value industrial products and increased support to export oriented
manufacturing sectors. Poverty reduction is the core objective of the Ethiopian Government.
Therefore, the efforts made to strengthen the agriculture sector, the industry development
strategy has been designed as agriculture led industrialization. The industry development
strategy emphasizes the need for sustained capacity building measures in terms of systems,
institutions and individual targeted towards accelerating labor intensive, agriculture led and
export oriented industrial development of the nation. Textile and garment sector has a large
number of employees and can be considered as a main strategic focus for the economic
development of the country.

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 3

Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

Ethiopia has good climate condition and 2,575,810-hectare potential land is available for
cultivation of cotton. Adding value to cotton products and other textile materials is the way
in which the textile manufacturing industries contribute to state and national economies.
While 98 percent of agricultural production in developed countries undergoes industrial
processing, nearly 30 percent is processed in developing countries. There is an alarming
gap between least developed and industrialized countries concerning the percentage of
value addition through industrial processes.

Textile and garment sub-sector of Ethiopian industry is at the forefront of agriculture-led
industrialization and export-oriented strategies of the Government of Ethiopia, which
appears to be a better way of entering the value chain system. As a consequence to the
change of industrialization the textile technology system demands a developing professional
profile, which has to satisfy the need for modern industrialization. The link between
traditional handicraft manufacturing and engineering capability and professional fields has to
be built up. Enormous potentials of value added and employment opportunities have not
been made use of until now. While developed nations add US $180 of value by processing
one ton of agricultural products, developing countries generate only US $ 40.

The process of globalization involving global and regional economic integration driven by
technological advances as well as trade liberalization and harmonization policies present
both threats and opportunities for existing agro-based industries in developing countries and
transition economies. The marginalization of developing countries from global trade is a
major concern today. Despite many other problems, this marginalization can mainly be
attributed to technical problems. As is true in many developing countries, the export led
industrialization policy set by the government is facing various challenges. Despite the
reductions and elimination of tariffs and quotas, which are decisive elements in the trade
liberalization process, the growth of developing country exports to developed country
markets and the associated developmental impact has been limited.

The policy endorsed by the government on agriculture-led industrialization demands
capacity building on trained manpower which comprises understanding, analyzing and
evaluating textile materials, processes, manufacturing and products in the process of
industrial transformation to produce competent textile products in global level. Textile was
the first sector that entered factory-manufacturing system during industrial revolution and
has a great role in transforming agrarian economy to industrial economy.

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 4

Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

2. Rationale

Textile Engineering is one of the main fields that play leading roles in the economical
development of a country. The objective of B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering Education is
to train students in the field of Textile Engineering as well as in Pedagogy so that the
graduated students can work as Teachers in TVET educational institutions.

Textile industry faces a major crunch in terms of well-trained manpower at the shop floor
level with adequate grasp of the technical matters. This work force should be enabled to
implement the decisions taken at higher levels. TVET educational institutions aim to supply
the manpower required for this. To enable the TVET institutions to achieve the above
objectives, well-trained teachers are essential. These teachers need to be trained in two
fundamental capacities: engineers and teachers. They should possess the capability of
reaching out to the students with school level qualifications and/or those with industrial
exposure whose skills can be improved by systematic education/practical work.

Recognizing this fact, the Federal Ministry of Education has introduced the new educational
program B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering. The Ministry of Capacity Building of Federal
Republic of Ethiopia, in partnership with the Federal Republic of Germany, launched
Engineering Capacity Building Program (ECBP). Engineering Education reform/overhaul,
which is being carried out in the Faculty of Engineering, is among the four tasks of this
program. Keeping in view the objectives of the new program viz., B. Sc. TVET in Textile
engineering, a new curriculum has been designed combining the core areas of Textile
Engineering and Teaching Skills.

The major features of the curriculum include the following.
• Core textile courses such as Spinning, Weaving, Knitting, Garment Technology and
Textile Chemical Processing have been given the necessary emphasis.
• The practical education aspect of each course, laboratory/workshop exercises,
project work and industrial internship are given adequate scope.
• A course on Quality Control and Management is included with the objective of
training engineers who in turn will disseminate the knowledge and skills to their
students for the quality improvement of manufactured products and/or technical
services.
• One third of the program is devoted for the Teaching Skills. Adequate coverage of
the working of TVET institutions, their role in the nation building is given.

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 5

Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

• In order to gain practical teaching skill, the students will be working in the TVET
institutions as part of the program. The importance given to this aspect can be seen
from the fact that the students will be spending their full time in TVET institutions
teaching the TVET students to the tune of 1 ½ semesters with an ECTS credit of 45.

• Courses are arranged in modules, which are envisaged to be helpful in organizing
facilities and planning of staff requirement/development in more structured way.

• In order to accredit the program by European Accreditation Institution, the European
Credit Transfer System (ESTS) is used. ECTS credits are a value allocated to courses
to describe the student workload required to complete them. They reflect the
quantity of work each course requires in relation to the total quantity of work
required to complete a full year of academic study at the institution that is, lectures,
practical work, seminars, private work- in the library or at home- and examinations
or other assessment activities.

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 6

Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

3. Training Objectives

The main objectives of the B. Sc. TVET textile engineering program are

• to provide broad-based education and training in textile engineering
• to provide broad-based pedagogy skills

The graduates of the “B. Sc. TVET Textile Engineering” study program shall acquire the
following capabilities and skills:

• Adequate mathematical and analytical competencies to use the engineering sciences
• Knowledge of scientific principles
• An understanding of the effects of raw material on products
• Ability to use standard computer application for data logging and analysis as well as

utilization of software
• Communication skills and team spirit which enables to work with various

professionals including business men
• Ability in “scientific writing” for technical reports in management, projects and

research
• Skills in teaching of engineering/technology subjects
• Skills in the management of class room activities and running of the TVET

educational institutions.

The following specific competencies shall be acquired and strengthened:
• Range of the operations from raw material selection and treatment to packaged
products including process control
• Hand-on skills on the safe operation and maintenance of textile processing
equipments and machineries
• Practical skills in the teaching of engineering/technology courses with focus on shop-
floor operations to enable production of quality goods with minimum cost

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 7

Bahir Dar Univesity Institute of Textile and Clothing Technology

4. Staff Profile

Currently the Institute has the following profile. In future, the Institute has a plan to
increase the number of staffs and correspondingly their level. Efforts are continuously
made to maintain and improve the quality of the teaching staff by their continuous
education to higher levels; whenever there is a shortage in a specific area, temporary
measures like recruitment of expatriate members are also undertaken to maintain the
quality of the programs.

As could be seen from the tables given below, the Institute has a rich diversity of
disciplines in the staff members and this is particularly important when one considers that
the Textile and Garment fields are truly ‘multi-disciplinary’ in nature. The Institute aims to
foster the diversity of the teaching staff members in various disciplines without losing sight
of maintaining a large proportion of staff members firmly anchored in the core disciplines
of Textiles and Garment field.

Ethiopian Staff (serving in the department)

Level Number Remark

M. Sc 4 Master of Science

M. Tech Textile Technology, Fiber Science and
8 Technology

M. F. Tech 2 Fashion Technology

MBA 1 Environmental and Energy Management
8 Textile Engineering/ Textile Education
Assistant Lecturer & 6 Advanced Diploma in Textile Technology
Graduate assistant II
Technical assistant

Expatriate Staff Number Remark
Level 2 Textile Engineering/ Textile Technology
M. Tech

Ethiopian Staff (studying in Ethiopia and abroad)

Level Number Remark

M. Tech/ M. Sc./ MBA 10 Textile engineering, Garment Technology etc

B. Sc. TVET in Textile Engineering (3- Year) 8