Skip to Content

General description about the of CSSH

 Background

Upgrading the Hawassa College of Agriculture into a university had always been the preoccupation of the then college leadership, especially Dr. Geremew Haile who served as Dean of the college for a long time. Although the Government of the time and the then Addis Ababa University administration had not been forthcoming for various reasons, the EPRDF government later decided to direct its policy focus on Higher education, and embarked on the establishment and expansion of universities. Since the then Hawassa College of Agriculture had rich experience and competent faculty, in relative terms, a decision was made to make it the nucleus for the envisaged university, i.e., Debub University. Hawassa College of Agriculture, Wondo Genet Forestry College and Dilla College of Education and Health Sciences were made to constitute Debub University.

Once the Government proclaimed the establishment of the university with the seat of the management at Hawassa College of Agriculture, series of meetings were convened in order to decide how to go about it. The College of Agriculture was tasked to look into the programs that ought to be developed under it. Agricultural Engineering department was tasked to take charge of the development of the engineering programs. As all the disciplines other than agriculture proper (usually called supporting disciplines) were housed under the Department of Basic Sciences, the two main Faculties (Faculty of Natural Sciences and Faculty of Social Sciences) came out of this Department in 2001. While Dr. Alay Hagos was assigned to lead the coordination of the establishment of the Faculty of Natural Sciences (FNS), Dr. Abdissa Zerai was assigned to lead the coordination of the establishment of the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS). By then the two founding deans established units to undertake various tasks in their respective areas. Staff Recruitment Committee was established for FSS in which Dr. Abdissa Zerai was the major player with respect to FSS. The Committee recruited various young academic staff, mainly graduates from Addis Ababa University, Mekele University, and Jimma University. Based on the copies of the curricula from Addis Ababa University, the Founding Dean and concerned committees developed curricula for the departments of Foreign Language and Literature, Management, Accounting, Economics and Law.

Following that, a University-wide curriculum validation workshop was organized. Key scholars in the various disciplines were invited from all corners of the country. After the validation workshop, the draft curricula were refined by taking into account feedbacks from the validation workshop. Then, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Social Sciences were formally established. Again, Dr. Alay Hagos became the first Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and Dr. Abdissa and Dr. Mengistu Dinato became the first Dean and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, respectively.

Once the Faculties were established in 2001, other serious and contentious issues of who should be relocated to the new, the-now-Main Campus, and the argument went on. As the new campus was relatively far and underdeveloped, infrastructure-wise, not many faculty members wanted to be relocated to the new campus. Later on, however, it became clear that the FNS and the FSS would be among those that would be relocated to the new campus. According to the Founding Dean, Dr. Abdissa, the establishment of the FSS had gone through a lot of challenges during the process. The year when the relocation was about to take place, Dr. Abdissa left the University for further education and went to the U.S, Dr. Tesfaye Sima replaced him.

Later, the departments of Law, Management, Accounting, and Economics were restructured as the School of Law, and the Faculty of Business and Economics, respectively. Hence, the Faculty was left with the Department of Foreign Language and Literature and Civics Unit for some time till the departments of Sociology, Anthropology, Governance and Development Studies, Journalism and Communication, and Psychology were established. Dr. Markos Tekle became a dean replacing Dr. Tesfaye Sima. After the restructuring process of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), the College of Social Sciences and Humanities was established in 2010 embracing School of Behavioral Sciences, School of Languages and Communication Studies, School of Teacher Education and Training, and Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. After a few years of the implementation of the BPR, restructuring was made and programs under the school structure, such as Anthropology, English Language and Literature, Journalism and Communication, Psychology, Sidaamu Afoo and Literature, and Sociology became Departments while Dr. Nigussie Meshesha was the Dean. Later, Dr. Dagne Shibru replaced Dr. Nigussie as the fifth Dean of the College when Dr. Nigussie left the University being appointed as the CEO of Walta Media and Communication Corporate. The Departments of Chinese Language and Literature, and Theatre and Film Arts were established making the number of Departments nine.  These changes culminated in the establishment of the current structure and official name—College of Social Sciences and Humanities—in 2010. Today, the College comprises the following seven departments:

  1. Department of Anthropology
  2. Department of English Language and Literature
  3. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
  4. Department of Journalism and Communication
  5. Department of Sidaamu Afoo and Literature
  6. Department of Sociology
  7. Department of Theater Arts and Film Arts

Mission of the College

The College strives to produce efficient and internationally competent graduates and undertake innovative works, rigorous research, and technology transfer activities to foster the social and economic development of the country.

Vision of the College

The College aspires to be one of the top ten best research colleges in Social Sciences and Humanities in Africa.

Values of the College

  • Excellence
  • Honesty
  • Inclusiveness
  • Academic freedom
  • Accountability
  • Collaboration
  • Innovation
  • Internationalisation