Open University, Open Minds

On Saturday I was pleased to be asked to address the graduation of the final and 7^th Cohort of Ethiopian Open University (OU) MBA students at Addis Ababa University. This was just the latest manifestation of a long-standing bilateral educational relationship.

The collaboration between the UK and Ethiopia in education stretches all the way back to the 1940s, with the development of the Ethiopian public education system and the move from French to English as the foreign language of choice; British Council support for establishments like General Wingate School (named after a famous British military leader who fought alongside Ethiopia in the Second World War); and support since then to the Ethiopian government education programme through the British Council and our bilateral aid programme run by the Department for International Development.

The relationship between Addis Ababa University and the OU is an excellent model of how educational partnerships can be built for the 21^st century. It demonstrates one of the many benefits of living in a globalised world. I hope that in my time in Ethiopia, many more British Universities will establish links with Ethiopian Universities and help produce future leaders here.

We commemorated the first anniversary of the premature death of former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi last week. He and his colleagues emerged from the bush, where they had been fighting the oppressive Derg regime, in 1991. And one of their early official calls was on my predecessor, the British Ambassador of the day.

They were wondering how best to prepare themselves for office, and his advice was to study an OU MBA. They agreed; the OU programme began here the following year; and there have since been some 386 Ethiopian OU MBA graduates (26 of them on Saturday). Meles Zenawi himself achieved a top class MBA, perhaps the best ever, and he continued afterwards to urge his colleagues to undertake valuable distance learning.

This experience no doubt played an important role in Ethiopia’s subsequent progress and development.

Ethiopia is a country with massive potential. But for that potential to be realized, Ethiopia needs good leaders – not just political, but in business, civil society, sport, education, health and much more. It needs people committed to improving themselves, people committed to inspiring others, and people who want to make a difference.

People able to influence the way the country evolves in future years. People who can think for themselves, question accepted ideas, innovate, challenge dogma and view issues from multiple perspectives. And those are just the skills the OU MBA course teaches. Nelson Mandela has argued that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

So on Saturday it was encouraging for me to see these impressive graduates, who in one way or another will be the future leaders of this country.