Open Access Initiatives in Ethiopia's Higher Learning Institutions

Ethiopia is one of the world's oldest civilizations with a population of about 120 million (2022 estimate). Ethiopia suffers from declining higher education quality, resulting from the rapid growth in the number of institutions (from three in 1990s to 50+ public Universities and 327+ private higher education institutions in 2022), the rapid expansion in tertiary student enrollment, as well as the lack of basic entrance qualifications. The quality of education in Ethiopia is further impacted by their limited access to critical content or knowledge as evidenced by limited subscriptions to scientific and technical databases. In recognition of open access's (OA's) potential to fill disadvantageous access gaps and enhance the overall educational quality, Ethiopia adopted a National OA policy in 2019. Among other enforcement mechanisms and guidelines, the policy requires universities to deposit all publicly funded publications in the National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia as well as in an institutional repository. In this chapter, the authors outline the state of OA policies and practices in Ethiopia's higher learning institutions.