International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies

ISSN: 2202-9478
www.ijels.aiac.org.au

Deliverology in Ethiopian Higher Education as a Quality Management Tool: Critical Review

and the Insider’s Reflection

Teklu Tafase Olkaba*, Ewnetu Hailu Tamene

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Jimma University, Ethiopia
Corresponding author: Teklu Tafase Olkaba, E-mail: teklu252@yahoo.com

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history The concept of deliverology as a systematic process for driving progress and delivering results
Received: August 03, 2019 in government and the public sector, was endorsed in Ethiopia in 2017 for the purpose of quality
Accepted: October 09, 2019 management in Ethiopian public universities. The impetus of this reflective review article is to
Published: October 31, 2019 examine the essence of deliverology as a quality management tool in Ethiopian higher learning
Volume: 7  Issue: 4 institutions as a response to graduate unemployment. In Ethiopia, different reform strategies
were endorsed in higher learning institutions such as: program diversification, modularization
governance reform strategies and currently deliverology as a quality management tool. This
Conflicts of interest: None paper critically reviewed the Ethiopian higher learning institutions experiences and the essence
Funding: None of deliverology from its inceptions to the current implementation in Ethiopian public universities.
The findings portray that deliverology as strategy for quality management is not conceived in
Ethiopian higher education community at large and reality on the ground is different from the
literature developed on the science of deliverology.

Key words: Deliverology, Higher Education Policies, Quality management, Reform Strategies

INTRODUCTION responsive to the requirements of a globally competitive

Literary, deliverology is the new concept endorsed in knowledge economy.
Ethiopian higher learning institutions in the last three years The reason behind this fact is that Ethiopian government
while in western world particularly in UK, is about two reacted to the low enrollment of Ethiopian higher education,
decades old. The purpose of endorsing deliverology in Ethi- among sub-Saharan Africa (Kahsay, 2012). As a matter of
opian higher learning institutions is to make systematic pro- facts the Ethiopian government was appreciated because of
cess of quality management in teaching learning that secures its social demand approaches which would have sustained its
graduates’ employability (MOE, 2017). However, the policy political stability (Olkaba, 2015). Besides the expansion pol-
scenarios, ambition of the government, realities regarding icy, the quality of higher education in Ethiopia did not attract
the economy of the country to deliver quality education and attention till the graduate unemployment eroded the coun-
secure jobs for graduates from Ethiopian universities have try. According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Education report
become a bottle neck for the country. more than 175,000 students graduate from Ethiopian pub-
Since the endorsement of the current education and lic universities annually (MoE, 2017). Because of gradate
training policy of 1994, Ethiopia has engaged in a highly mix policy, 70% of graduating students are from science and
ambitious effort to re-align its higher education system technology disciplines while 30% are from social sciences
more directly to its national strategy for economic growth and humanities (MoE, 2017). This proportion is the result of
and poverty reduction (MOE, 2017 & Olkaba, 2015). the graduate mix policy endorsed in 2009 that allowed entry
The number of universities changed drastically from two with 70% students to join science and technology stream and
universities to 49 universities within the last 15 years. 30% to join social sciences and humanities stream.
Within this expansion an attempt was made to diversi- Besides the expansion policy and program diversifi-
fy disciplines and human resource requirements in all cation, there were different strategic tools endorsed for
development sectors (MOE, 2017). The massification of quality management of higher education teaching learning
university enrollments in science, engineering and tech- processes. Among others, the modularization process, for
nology is the result of the new strategic approach of the alignment of the Ethiopian higher education national quali-
government of Ethiopia (MOE, 2017). In this context, the fications framework with that of the European qualifications
government of Ethiopia is focusing on helping its tertia- framework, graduation mix policy (Kahsay, 2012; Olkaba,
ry education institutions to become more innovative and 2015; Olkaba & Tamene, 2017) and deliverology are major

Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.7n.4p.83
84 IJELS 7(4):83-90

reforming tools in Ethiopian higher education institutions. • Articles written on deliverology: 6 internationally
However, there are still many critics because of the poor reputable articles (Andersen, 2008; Forster, 2005;
quality of Ethiopian higher learning institutions, graduates Jolson, 2015; Lindquist, 2006; Richards, 2016; Seddon,
of Ethiopian universities are not getting jobs and creating 2009;) were critically reviewed.
jobs after graduation(MOE, 2017). However, the expansion • Ethiopian Ministry of Education policy strategy docu-
and graduate mix policy is negatively perceived by most ments: three policy strategies and one consultative doc-
scholars in Ethiopia (Kahsay, 2012; Olkaba, 2015), as the ument were reviewed.
quality of graduate for both local and global placements be- • Research articles and PhD dissertations on Ethiopian
came a critical challenge that forces the governments to look public higher education: four articles and two PhD dis-
into deliverology as alternative tool to improve the quality of sertations were reviewed.
Ethiopian higher learning institutions. • Experiences of deliverology implementation in
Malaysia, Put land; California state of education
sectors, Canada, Ontario; Australia, Queen’s land; and
SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM
from Africa, Tanzanian experiences of deliverology im-
In Ethiopia, higher education research report (Kahsay, 2012; plementation have been critically reviewed. All sources
Olkaba, 2015; Teshome, 2007) portrays that for the last were acknowledged and referenced.
15 years, different reform tools for both higher education
administration and quality management were introduced.
Some of these tools are as follows: Business Process re-en- RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
gineering (BPR) implemented for responding bureaucratic This section portrays the essence of deliverology from its
administration aspects of higher education, while Business conceptual inception to practical implementaion discourses,
Score Card (BSC) and Kaizen introduced for quality and re- scenarios and its current status in Ethiopian public universi-
source management strategies in Ethiopian higher education ties as a guarantee for quality management tool.
(Kahsay, 2012; Olkaba, 2015). The Office of quality assur-
ance at institutional levels and Higher Education Quality
The Concepts of Deliverology
and Relevance Agencies were established national level to
monitor Ethiopian higher education quality at large (Kahsay, The concept, meaning and implementation of deliverology
2012; Olkaba, 2015; Teshome, 2007). introduced by Michael Barber (2009) as:
The graduate mix policy states to have 70% school leaving • A systematic process for driving progress and delivering
students joining higher education and to have 70% of the stu- results in government and the public sector
dents graduating in science and technology (Kahsay, 2012). • A systematic process through which system leaders
This policy brought a rapid increase in science and technology can drive progress and deliver results and it requires a
enrolments with large numbers of new enrollment in all Ethi- sharp focus on a very limited set of priorities in order to
opian public universities. This rapid increase in enrolments in succeed. (Barber, 2009, p.4)
the science and technology created a chaotic situation for the Advocators of deliverology (Etheridge & Thomas, 2015;
country at large (Olakba, 2015). Because of the fact that grad- Mullin, 2014; Reevely, 2016; Watkins, 2013 & Poister et al.,
uate unemployment exacerbating the county within short pe- 2013) remarked the viability of deliverology as a science of
riod of time. Hence, Ministry of Education took initiative for prioritization and implementation for delivering government
assuring quality and relevance in Ethiopian higher education strategic goals and policy promises as a unique tools com-
via a science of deliverology. Therefore, the main objective pared to other reform tools that responds to the key questions
of the study was to examine the essence of deliverology from under considerations:
its inception to the current status and finally to reflect on the • What are our priorities, goals, targets, and expected re-
challenges in Ethiopian public higher learning institutions as sults?
to draw attention of the policy makers to its implementation. • How to deliver up on priorities, goals, targets?
• How to implement and monitor effective delivery sys-
tem within the given time framework to respond the
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES public demanding results?
The study was conducted in reviewing the available literature From the very few definitions of deliverology, it can be
of deliverology from its inception in the UK to its discours- drawn that it is a science of prioritization and implementa-
es in different countries; Ethiopian higher education policy tion. From the theoretical principles of deliverology, there
documents, articles written by scholars regarding Ethiopian is an established delivery unit which looks after key activ-
higher education, researchers insider reflections as they have ities prioritized for implementation. The key aspect of de-
concrete experiences of Ethiopian higher education policy liverology is the establishment of central unit with focus on
scenarios. Then looking at the experiences of other coun- managing performance against key policy outcomes and the
tries: and how it is going on in Ethiopian higher learning development of processes for performance improvement
institutions was examined with critical reflective approach. (Barber, 2015).
Summary of the reviewed sources are: Moreover, Joelson (2015), on his thesis, portrayed deliv-
• Deliverology books and guidelines of Sir Michael Bar- ery unit as Centers of Government. It means that the func-
ber (2007; 2008; 2009; 2011 & 2015) tions of a delivery unit are actually a sub-set of activities
Deliverology in Ethiopian Higher Education as a Quality Management Tool: Critical Review
and the Insider’s Reflection 85

inside the broader functions of centers of governments. Deliverology was introduced in Canada, Ontario after
A strong center of government is a key aspect to empow- several years of UK deliverology with the chief Canada
ering delivery units to drive improvements in performance Prime Minister Mr. Trudeau. Trudeau promises turning the
(Barber, 2007 & 2008). From the premises of the concepts former holistic result delivery approaches to more specif-
of deliverology as a science and delivery unit as a center of ic one called Trudeau’s five deliverology targets (Forster,
government function, one can understand that deliverology 2005). Trudeau to introduce a new way of delivering poli-
is a technical tool for prioritizing key policy issues in gov- cies across the entire government focusing on: Growing the
ernment sectors for driving processes and deriving results to middle class, stronger diversity, improved relationships with
address public demands (Seddon, 2009). indigenous, and outcomes for peoples, and international
engagement that makes a difference in the world (Forster,
Deliverology in Other Countries 2005, p.3). However, a critic of Forster (2005) portrays that
the attempted improvement is not getting its vital meaning to
Deliverology endorsed in different counties with different the public demanding it. These is because of the fact that the
scenarios and approaches to manage the implementation of actual target set was compromised by the overlooked pub-
policies promised by the government for public services. lic demand and its top down delivery approaches denied by
Few literatures have been explored to portray the essence of most implementers (Andersen, 2008).
deliverology in other world in general and that of higher edu- According to scholars in areas of system manage-
cation. After Sr. Michael introduced deliverology as a means ment (Forster, 2005; Joelson, 2015; Lindquist 2006) two
of addressing education management in UK, during the Tony known delivery unit established in Australia were notified
Blair government, it has got to scale up to different Coun-
as Queensland’s Implementation Unit and the federal gov-
tries, among others in Malaysia, Put land, California state of
ernment’s Cabinet Implementation Unit (CIU), in 2004 and
education sectors. Education authors have been criticizing
2003 respectively. The CIU established in 2003 (Lindquist,
the science of deliverology in different perspectives. For in-
2006, p.7) ‘acts as a catalyst to drive the implementation
stance, John Seddon dictated deliverology in his book as:
and delivery of the Government’s most important agendas
Deliverology actually made public services in the UK
as well as reporting on the progress of numerous policy ini-
worse from a user’s point of view. In fact, even after
tiatives across government’. The study of Lindquist confirms
three years of deliverology and improved government
that both Queensland Implementation Unit and the Cabinet
numbers, public satisfaction with services was not
Implementation Unit have been described as less potent, di-
improving (Seddon, 2008, p.2).
rective, robust and aggressive than the UK’s PMDU at over-
John Seddon argued that deliverology in its nutshell
seeing improved delivery of key priorities (Lindquist, 2006).
failed to respond in the way that the public deserves from the
then UK government. He further articulated the reason why The other notable world of deliverology is Malaysia in
deliverology failed in UK as: similar vein to UK deliverology approach with established
One major problem is its top-down approach to driv- Performance Management and Delivery Unit under the
ing change, what Seddon calls its “Mickey Mouse Prime minister office (Lindquist, 2006). Two prioritized area
command and control’’. That basic mindset produces of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Lindquist,
several counter-productive consequences for truly im- 2006, p.17):
proving public services. It fails to take advantage of the • Creating ‘Delivery Labs’ to bring together a range of
knowledge people who actually deliver the service have key stakeholders and experts to work intensively to
and it ultimately destroys the sense of public duty that draw up detailed, practical solutions to delivery issues.
most effectively inspires those people to provide quality • Holding Open Days, attended by over 20,000 partici-
service. (Seddon, 2008, p.2). pants, to communicate the government’s change pro-
According to John Seddon (2008), as the approach of gram and gain citizen buy-in. (Lindquist 2006, p. 17)
deliverology in UK is a top down command and with high To make the scope of delivery more worldwide the de-
rigidity on few elements of performance management de- livery unit established under the prime minister of Malaysia
liverology was not effective in UK to respond the public has made promotions and seminars to other countries in Af-
services demanded from UK government. It means that de- rica and Asian where the Tanzanian government is the first in
liverology might have lacked basic elements of democratic adopting deliverology from Africa in February 2013, ahead
elements that promotes bottom up approaches. On the other of Ethiopian Government’s deliverology endorsement by
hand, it gives on few, very narrow, rigid targets as the sole four years.
measure of improvement in public services and rigid ele- Indeed, the experiences of Pakistan for education system
ments of quality performance management. However, public management since 2011 can be taken as a good example which
service demands more than that the entities of deliverology is similar to that of Tanzanian deliverology approaches. The
(Seddon, 2008). Moreover, Seddon in his critic remarks that, road map of deliverology in the government of the Punjab,
the delivery unit for data management on targeted and pri- Pakistan was succeeded in transforming education quality
oritized strategies in responding public demand especially in the province led by the delivery associates. Sir Michael
on health service in UK was out of the mission and only took Pakistan as succeeded government in delivering results
data cooking for the purposes of rewarding and punishment in addressing quality education system (Barber, 2013). This
(Seddon, 2008). is why the delivery associated established by Sir Michael
86 IJELS 7(4):83-90

Barber are working as consulting firm in Ethiopian Ministry and program diversification system to meet the country’s hu-
of education in the first year of deliverology endorsement man power demands at all levels (MOE, 2017). The policy
took the success of deliverology in Pakistan particularly for envisaged a higher education expansion policy that was real-
education system management as an advantage to induce ised in the last two decades especially from the year 2000 to
the narration of deliverology in context of Ethiopian higher 2019. This resulted the increase of the number of Ethiopian
education. public higher education institutions from two to forty five
The researchers recognize that deliverology is diffusing universities with different policy reforms, such as the grad-
itself from its base, UK to other world, whereas the way it uate mix and policy and programme diversification in line
endorsed all country differs from each other as each country with the country’s development policy (MOE, 2017).
has its own policies and programs. So far deliverology en- Besides the expansion policy of higher education, the
dorsed in Pakistan succeeded in keeping the quality of edu- Ethiopian Ministry of Education inaugurated the ‘graduate
cation at its optimum pace whereas Tanzanian government mix policy’ (MOE 2009, p.39) in all public universities. The
deliverology approach is also getting appreciation for the basis for the graduate mix policy was to balance the quali-
intended policy to be implemented in effective manner to fied human power for the growth and transformation plans to
respond the public demanding the output policy initiatives. revitalize the country’s economic from an agriculture-based
It is true that the intension and endorsement of deliverology economy to the export-led economy (MOE, 2017). The in-
is to solve the critical problems of each country. In the case tention of the graduate mix policy (MOE, 2017) is to have
of Ethiopia, deliverology is expected to solve the quality and science and technology graduates with 70% school leaving
relevance of higher education that ensures graduate employ- students join public univerities in the fields of science and
ability. This premise in turn leads to political crisis man- technology and to have 70% of the students graduating in
agement which was resulted from graduate unemployment science and technology. However, the graduate mix policy
turmoil in the case of Ethiopia and as a mechanisms and a of Ethiopian higher education resulted in a rapid increase in
prerequisite to win political election in the case of Canada science and technology enrolments with large numbers of
and Australia. new entrants at all Ethiopian public universities and soon the
However, most literature, particularly in the worlds of de- graduate unemployment crisis eroded the country.
liverology, the principle of deliverology has got difficulty plat- Perhaps one can question why deliverology in Ethiopia,
forms of applications. According Richards (2016), deliverol- and why it is in higher education? Short answer might be
ogy from several directions constitutes a ‘silo effects’ when the deterioration of quality in higher education resulted the
certain groups are identified for additional attention, based on endorsement of deliverology. During the introduction the
pre-established performance targets; while the others can by philosopher of Deliverology Sr. Michael Barber came to
default, be identified for neglect (Richards, 2016, p. 7). Ethiopia and gave a day lecture on how to use deliverology
In Ethiopia the critical problem for which deliverology in education system in general and higher education in par-
imposed was because of the fact that quality in education sys- ticular. In his lecture Michael Barber told us that he worked
tem highly deteriorated at all levels which brought up poor in various levels of education in the United Kingdom and ad-
quality graduate resulting graduate employment crisis. The visor of the former UK prime minister, Tony Blair and head
graduate an employment crisis leading the political crisis for of Delivery Unit, which supports the government of Blair
the ruling party as unemployed graduates are overwhelming for prioritizing and improving public high public demands
the country in all direction. This is why the authors argued and services.
to deliverology as crisis management for sustenance of the During the inception of deliverology in Ethiopian, it was
government and the ruling party at the same time. believed that the implementation and organization of deliv-
ery unit under ministry of education and delivery unit in each
university. It seems partial restructuring of the university to
Introduction of Deliverology in Ethiopian Public Higher
respond to the prioritized areas in quality teaching learning
Learning Institutions
processes and assurance for program relevance of undergrad-
Ethiopia introduced modern higher education in 1950s with uate programs. It means that deliverology in Ethiopia comes
the founding of the University College of Addis Ababa. Re- for strengthening education system in Ethiopia in general of
search evidence shows that modern higher education began its higher education in particular. This is why university grad-
operations with the onset of the 20th century that was heralded uates are unable to compete for local and global world of
by the establishment of the University College of Addis Aba- work. Thus, the endorsement of deliverology in Ethiopi-
ba (UCAA) in 1950 with was the Western universities’ train- an higher education expected to solve the critical issues of
ing models and principles (Kahsay, 2012 & Olkaba, 2015). quality and program relevance. World Bank (2011, p. 41) ad-
Ethiopian higher education development from1974 to 1990 dresses five top tips to strengthening the education systems
was characterised by the low participation rate in higher edu- ability to deliver results with sound policies and coherent
cation, poor collaboration with local communities, weakness strategies.
regarding its research output and poorly connections with the • Prioritized action plans and targets,
international higher education community, leading to the col- • Setting standards and benchmarks,
lapse of policy directions (Olkaba, 2015; Teshome, 2003). • Measure, monitor and make results public
However, the 1994 education and training policy changed • Incentivized good performance, and
the landscape of the Ethiopian higher education expansion • Strengthen oversight mechanisms.
Deliverology in Ethiopian Higher Education as a Quality Management Tool: Critical Review
and the Insider’s Reflection 87

It’s vital to remark that the premises of deliverology and • Graduates basic competence: one of the most important
the World Bank (2011) recommendations on strengthening root causes of unemployment miss match between grad-
education system mutually complementary. So, authors uate’s profile and the need of the world of work. While
look the introduction of deliverology to Ethiopian education the world of work of the 21st century require various
system positively which seems imperative as the science of skill mainly IT skills like computer and digital skill our
result delivery recognized by World Bank through prioriti- graduates from universities are not equipped with prac-
zation, standardization, and deriving results. However, the tical and conceptual skills that employers are seeking
question is that the way deliverology introduced and the per- for. To be more specific, the graduates are lucking are
ceptions of Ethiopian higher education stakeholders seem not only lacking the practical skills required (e.g. com-
different form realities on ground. Hence, the essence of puter use for technology, problem solving and analytical
deliverology in Ethiopia higher education is to ensure 80% thinking skills), but also the soft skills that are key to
graduates secure employments within one year from the date securing jobs that much valued in the workplace like
of graduation with their respective discipline. communication, teamwork, leadership skills.
Language of instruction for teaching learning is another
barrier where poor command of English, limits students’
Priority Areas in Ethiopian Higher Education
learning leading to poor understanding of the subject
Deliverology in Ethiopian higher education is seen as Centre matter. This language barrier is further exacerbated by
of governing prioritized areas that directly responding to the fact that many teachers are lacking good command
quality inputs or tools supporting university students in of the language of instruction, English.
building both soft and hard skills. The soft skills intended • University-industry linkages: The challenges in em-
are expected with mainstreaming in all structures of higher ployment of graduates are often attributed to the mis-
education units to support the students learning, so as to get match between the supply and demand by the labor
employment opportunities within a year or 12 months from market. There seems little consideration/understanding/
the date of graduation. on the needs of the labor market, leading to a glut of
The delivery associates in Ethiopia came up with the pri- graduates in similar even in one area and a dearth of in-
oritization initiatives in all Ethiopian universities to scale up dustry in another. Currently, universities place students
the graduate employment opportunities within one year of on internship, apprenticeship and externship programs.
graduation. The delivery associate in Ethiopia defined em- However, due to problem in planning and communica-
ployability as degree-relevant employment: The graduate is tion the implementation is affected that the values gained
employed in a job that is in line with the knowledge, skills from these programs are limited. These challenges can
and attitude listed in the graduate profile, and not neces- be stated as the university doesn’t structure the program
sarily in the same field of study (MOE, 2017). In order to with the program objectives, expected skills to be gained;
realize these hypothesis major quality hindering factors in whilst the companies receiving students do not plan the
Ethiopian higher education were identified by the delivery programs and do not provide supervisory or mentorship
associates recruited as a consultant of the Ethiopian Ministry support to students. (Delivery associates, Ministry of Ed-
of Education, with experts from Universities. The priority ucation,Bishoftu, Ethiopia, August, 2017)
area identification and strategic decision making process has During the workshop, so many factors hindering qual-
taken 12 days’ workshop at Bishoftu, Ethiopia. The work- ity of graduates discussed and experiences of other coun-
shop was conducted with delivery associates, ministry of tries higher education quality management and graduate
education, and university staffs selected for deliverology ini- employability policies benchmarked by the delivery associ-
tiatives for prioritizing, planning, executing and monitoring ates. Among the various factors affecting quality of teach-
all deliverology components in Ethiopian higher education. ing learning that directly influence the quality of graduate’s
During the workshop, major quality problems in Ethiopian employability were selected to overcome the unemployment
higher education (Delivery associates, Bishoftu, August, crisis in Ethiopia. Based on the science of prioritization sev-
2017 identified as follows: en strategies set as a model improving employment opportu-
• Teachers’ professional competence: Big driver of nity by science of deliverology in all Ethiopian universities:
employability is the quality of graduates as university • Improving teacher performance and motivation
products; however the reality is the revers. Our grad- • Improving student learning competence
uates lack practical skill as well as conceptual knowl- • Improving teacher pedagogical and language compe-
edge of the area of the study they graduated in. Among tencies
the various root causes to this challenge, teacher quality • Improving student language skills
was deemed to be the top factor impacting quality of • Improving linkage with industry and support to students
graduates. One of the main problems identified were (Career Services)
teachers’ lack of the technical and the pedagogical skills • Improving student skills through value adding intern-
which is key to effectively prepare and coach students ship experiences and
for the world of work requirements. Although good pol- • Tracer study
icies and processes have been put in place quality of It is true that these strategies were designed for realiz-
classroom teaching and assessment of students’ learning ing Ethiopian education sector development programme V
remain challenging. (ESDP-V) 2015/16-2020 with the initiative, called ensuring
88 IJELS 7(4):83-90

≥ 80% the employability of graduates by improving quality another challenge. Of course, deliverlology document gives
and relevance of undergraduate programmes. However, emphasis on quality management at input and process level.
the progress and delivering results of these strategies are As the total quality management of higher education consti-
fragmented and not meeting the science of deliverology. tute the whole entities of the program not only on few qual-
ity inputs such as teacher assessment, student assessment,
continuous professional development, English language im-
Practices in Ethiopia Higher Learning Institutions
provement, internship, career services and tracer studies.
It is better to portray what the realities on the ground and In Ethiopia these elements are constituents of deliverol-
what deliverology attempts to respond in the current reali- ogy to manage quality of higher education to secure job se-
ties in Ethiopia. In the last two decades in Ethiopian, higher curity for graduates. However, program quality constitutes
education is characterized with unexpected expansion and more broad elements than the one embarrassed in deliverol-
enrollment growth of students of which the ratio 70: 30; the ogy of Ethiopian higher education. Program qualities likely
graduate mix policy impacting student admission is over- equilibrate with the quality that the industry demand, not the
whelming the country. Even though deliverology emphases quality that the training institute for cast for the usual report.
on few qualities of input and process management, the real- As a result, that the operation of deliverology in Ethiopian
ity on the ground is twofold: Program relevance and qual- higher education is an effortless program exercised, and the
ity of the program itself. As the preliminary documents of outcome of deliverology is not this much expected in brining
deliverology in Ethiopian higher education indicates, is to quality and relevance of Ethiopian universities. The follow-
ensure job security of graduates to the coming 2020 by 80%, ing are the missing link of deliverology in Ethiopian higher
realities on ground should clearly be articulated in terms of education quality management
program quality and relevance.
Program relevance: in Ethiopia ratio 70: 30 admission
policies was not readable with the industry requiring man- DISCUSSION
power and end up with the market mismatch with graduates:
Ethiopian Higher Education and its Relevance to Local
One of the focus group discussion shows this realty as:
Realities
There was an orientation when we took our first entry
to our university how and why to assign the proportion For instance, the country’s development policy is led with
of student as 70:30 ratios. During the orientation, some the development policy as agricultural led industrialization.
academic group understood that the country’s manpow- This policy is true because of the fact that country is poor
er demand dictated the movement to develop the policy. due to unused resources-fertile land and manpower, which
Today it is referred as 70:30 higher education admission are reliable to agricultural led industrialization, and 83% of
policies. But within short time, we are observing that the country lives in rural areas highly engaging in traditional
there will be a mismatch between manpower demands farming system. However, when we see the contribution of
in the intended ratio of graduate. For instance, for this our higher education in general and universities in particular
year accounting department of our university wanted the role played by these institutions in transforming our lo-
to recruit lecturers who graduated with MA degree in cal reality, traditional farming system, to modern system, is
accounting discipline and advertised in Addis Zemen none existent at all in perspectives of the level challenge and
two times, and eventually the department didn’t get any opportunity we have.
candidate. However, in the same university, in an elec- Deliverology in Ethiopian higher education didn’t ad-
trical department vacancy advertised for recruitment dress the local relevance of universities for transforming
of lecturers; 27 MSC graduate and more than 200 BSC higher education mission to policy responsive, agricultural
graduate CVs were collected by human resources of our led industrialization, that absorb a lot of graduates, to ensure
university. For further scrutiny, if we visit job seekers employability of ≥80% within a year of graduation. Since
among others at least 50% are graduates of engineer- agriculture is a huge industry of Ethiopian and also most of
ing and technology. We cannot deny these realities; it is Ethiopian universities based and build up on colleges of ag-
an implication of the 70:30 admission outcomes. On the riculture, the local relevance of Ethiopian universities should
other hand, even though not supported with statistical respond to agricultural transformation that leads to agricul-
data, there are hearings of here and there on lack of tural led industrialization, and deliverology should responds
social science teachers for secondary education. This is to these realities.
also one indication of the 70:30 outcomes.
In support of this comment, another participant recom-
Admission Policy of Ethiopia Higher Learning
mended that revising “the curriculum of Ethiopian higher
Institutions
education in line with local and global market demand”.
These arguments confirm that there is a gap between the The current admission policy is against the country’s man
intention of endorsing expansion and program diversifica- power demand and its social demand approaches of uni-
tion process and the practice, on one hand; on the other hand versity aggressive expansion could not be entertained with
there is a lot to do to realize clear guide line and policy to deliverology science. As deliverology works with respect
make sure that there will be local and global market demands to quality and relevance on one side and the 30/70 admis-
for the graduates. On the other hand, program quality is sion policy (30% social and humanity discipline and 70%
Deliverology in Ethiopian Higher Education as a Quality Management Tool: Critical Review
and the Insider’s Reflection 89

engineering-technology and science) works on the other However, among countries with experiences of
side, the reality on the ground is completely different from deliverology only few countries like Pakistan, Punjab region
these two dimensions. Where there is no industry heavy or succeeded in keeping the quality of education at its optimum
light industry, how it can be sure that 70% students grad- pace and Tanzanian government deliverology approach is
uated from engineering-technology and science discipline also getting appreciation for the intended policy to be imple-
get employed within a year of graduation. On top of this the mented in effective manner to respond the public demanding
consent of deliverology in Ethiopia is to ensure ≥80% em- the output of policy initiatives. Whereas the deliverology ap-
ployability by 2020, which is unthinkable to realize the dete- proach in its birth place, UK, because of its top down com-
riorated quality of Ethiopian university to rehabilitate within mand and rigidity on few elements of performance manage-
two or three years from 2017. ment responded in very limited public services demanded
In short no local market demanding the graduates; poor from UK government.
quality of graduates to be attracted by global market and job Deliverology in Ethiopian higher education is at frantic
seeking rather than job creation exacerbating the country will status, and its nexus to higher education quality and rele-
be continued, and the current deliverology may not be guar- vance management seems an intricate for application. It
antee of quality and relevance of Ethiopian higher education. lacks local reality; its approach is top down. The outcome
is expected in 2020, which contradicts the usual quality and
relevance, difficulty to maintain quality of higher education
Deliverology Approach
within two years. Furthermore, even if quality is maintained
The delivery is initiated by the government and mandated by to some extent the admission policy of the Ethiopian higher
the Ethiopian ministry of education to implement all com- education contradicts the market demand of graduate em-
ponents of seven strategies for ensuring ensure ≥80% em- ployability. From the researchers’ point of view, deliverolo-
ployability by 2020. The approach is solely top down, as the gy is a tool endorsed in Ethiopian higher education without
former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn dealing with the current Ethiopian higher education local rel-
and Sir Michael Barber, the owner of deliverology project evance, admission policy, governance structure or approach-
and the former delivery unit advisor of the former UK Prime es and market demand analysis.
Minister, Tony Blair, officially endorsed deliverology in Therefore, the researchers recommend that there should
Ethiopia within two days meeting in Ethiopia. During the be new model of manpower approaches that balance the lo-
introduction of deliverology Ethiopian ministry of educa- cal needs and realities with the quality and relevance of pro-
tion took the initiatives from the prime ministry office and grams in Ethiopian universities which directly responds to
directly imposed on Ethiopian universities without much graduate employability.
preparation and structural adjustments. As the approach of
deliverology was structurally different from the experiences
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