Where SMU is Today
Teaching and Learning
The regular and extension programs of St. Mary’s University (SMU) are organized under four Faculties: Faculty of Business, Faculty of Teacher Education, Faculty of Law, and Faculty of Informatics. The Faculty of Teacher
Education comprises four departments: Languages, Mathematics and Basic Sciences, Social Sciences, and Education.The Faculty of Business has four departments: Accounting, Business Management, Marketing Management, and Secretarial Science and Office Management (SSOM). All departments in the Faculty offer both degree and TVET programs, except the SSOM Department which offers only the TVET program.
Training in the distance mode is being given in Business, Law, Teacher Education, Cooperatives and Rural Development Programs. Apart from these, SMU has started offering Masters Programs in collaboration with IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) since 2006.
Student Support Services
SMU is committed to support the academic and social needs of students by facilitating conditions that enable them to successfully complete their courses. To this end, the Student Affairs and Services Office supports the academic goals of the University in ways that enable students to handle different challenges of life. The Office carries out its duties through counseling and guidance in matters related to students’ learning, career and personal problems, HIV/AIDS awareness. It also enhances the learning process by organizing different extracurricular activities that encourage healthy interaction among students.
As part of its practicum and internship program, the University not only facilitates placement of students but follows up practical off-campus activities of students and collects evaluation results. Through the Practicum and Internship Office, the University also gives career counseling and employment services to graduates upon request of employers.
With regard to distance learners, the major student support services include: Information delivery, Material Dispatch, Tutorial, Practicum and Internship, Counseling and Library Services. In order to facilitate individual support to its learners, the Distance Education Division has 60 coordinating centers throughout the country. These Centers are coordinated by four Regional Desks at the Head Quarter, and 14 Regional Centers in the various regional states.
Research and Quality Assurance Activities
SMU has been engaged in promoting research as it is considered one of the University ’s primary objectives. Since the beginning, the main orientation of research at St. Mary’s has been towards PHEIs and educational quality issues. To support and promote research in these areas of interest, the University has so far sponsored and organized five annual national conferences. Over eighty research papers, presented during the conferences (held 2003 to 2006), have been published in the form of conference proceedings.SMU has also a research award scheme for funding graduate and undergraduate students’ theses in the area of private higher education. The University further emphasizes on improving SMU students’ research skills. To this end, it has conducted the First Student Research Forum on September 2, 2007.
In an effort to provide quality education, SMU has undertaken numerous quality assurance activities to assess and assure quality education at the University . It is the first higher education institution to conduct Institutional Quality Audit, which was done in 2004.
The Research and Quality Assurance Office was upgraded to Center for Research and Quality Assurance (CRQA) in March 2006 since quality assurance requires the involvement of all administrative and faculty members. CRQA has recently been restructured as Center for Educational Improvement, Research and Quality Assurance (CEIRQA).
Community and Professional Services
Since its foundation, St. Mary’s has strongly committed itself to the principles of community services. In this regard, in addition to awarding scholarship to the disadvantaged sections of the society, it has given assistance to public schools and s in Addis Ababa and the regions. The support comprised providing teaching aids and offering training. The Ministry of Education, too, has made use of St. Mary’s human resources in designing curricula and preparing teaching materials at various times.
