Debre Berhan University

Health and medical education

Debre Berhan University (DBU) teaches all of its health programmes on the Asrat Woldeyes Health Science Campus, a separate campus in Debre Berhan city. The campus is named after Professor Asrat Woldeyes, the surgeon and Addis Ababa University professor whom the university calls a pioneer of Ethiopian medical education.

The campus says it now runs 10 undergraduate, 17 master's and 6 PhD programmes in five schools, with more than 1,600 students. It reports 406 academic staff (323 men and 83 women), plus 262 administrative and 32 technical staff.

Accreditation: the strongest record on the ETA register

The Education and Training Authority's (ETA) new online register listed only 13 programme accreditations nationwide when we checked. Four of them belong to Debre Berhan's Asrat Woldeyes campus, more than any other institution:

The register is new, so programmes missing from it are not necessarily unaccredited.

School of Medicine

The school says it was formally established in 2012. The World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS) also gives 2012 as the year MD teaching began. According to the school, it has graduated seven cohorts of doctors and has over 400 undergraduate students on two programmes:

• the Doctor of Medicine (MD);
• the BSc in Anesthesia.

It also offers an MSc in Medical Physiology. It says it is "expanding its offerings to include specialty and residency training programs", but it does not name any specialties running yet. The school describes its curriculum as integrated, outcome-based and community-oriented. The WDOMS entry carries an ECFMG note listing graduation years "2017 – Current". That means graduates from 2017 onwards can apply for ECFMG certification, the route to US licensing exams, provided they meet the other requirements.

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Nursing is the oldest health programme here. The comprehensive nursing programme started in 2000 E.C., which the school gives as 2008/09. The school now lists:

• four BSc programmes: Comprehensive Nursing, Midwifery, Pediatrics and Child Health Nursing, and Surgical Nursing;
• four master's programmes: Adult Health Nursing; Pediatrics and Child Health Nursing; Maternity and Reproductive Health Nursing; and Midwifery and Women's Health;
• a PhD in Midwifery and Women's Health. It says it is preparing a second PhD, in Nursing.

The school says its students achieved a 100% pass rate on both the licensure and exit examinations. It does not give the year or cohort, so treat this as a self-reported figure.

Public health, pharmacy and laboratory science

• School of Public Health. It has departments of Public Health, Health Informatics, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The last of these coordinates all postgraduate and doctoral programmes. Departments of Environmental Health and Dietetics are planned "in the near future".
• School of Pharmacy and School of Medical Laboratory Science. Both list their directors and deans since October 2017 E.C. (2024), but their pages do not yet list programmes.

Teaching hospital

The university's own teaching hospital is Hakim Gizaw Hospital (also called Hakim Gizaw Memorial Teaching Hospital). It has served patients since May 2022 (2014 E.C.), with 168 health professionals. A recent campus news item reports the inauguration of CT-scan and fluoroscopy services at the hospital. The medical school also refers to a wider network of affiliated hospitals but does not name them. We found no published bed count.

Rankings in health subjects

On EduRank's research-based subject lists, DBU ranks 11th in Ethiopia for medicine, nursing and pharmacology, and 12th for public health and OB-GYN. Its world positions run from 1,510 (public health) to 3,192 (pharmacology).

The institution

The Council of Ministers established DBU in 2007 (1999 E.C.). It was one of the "second generation" public universities. Teaching started with 725 students, 68 instructors and seven administrative staff in a single Faculty of Education. DBU says it now has more than 12,920 students across regular, extension, summer and distance programmes, 1,415 academic staff and 1,639 administrative and technical staff.

Since 2020 the government has classed DBU as a University of Applied Sciences, and health sciences is one of its focus areas. It has eight colleges and three campuses: the main campus, the Asrat Woldeyes Health Science Campus and the Mehal Meda campus. The university's motto is "Practical Knowledge for the Better Success".

Debre Berhan is in the North Shewa Zone of Amhara Region, about 130 km from Addis Ababa. Among Ethiopian universities, DBU is 10th overall on EduRank and 13th of 51 on uniRank's 2026 table.

Undergraduate places for school leavers in public universities are assigned through the national placement system run by the Ministry of Education. DBU's site does not publish tuition for self-sponsored or extension study.

Before you apply

• Check which programmes are accredited. Medicine and nursing hold provisional ETA accreditation (to 2029), while midwifery and anaesthesia hold full accreditation (to 2031). Ask whether pharmacy, public health and laboratory science have been through ETA review.
• Ask where clinical rotations happen. Hakim Gizaw Hospital opened in 2022. Ask which other hospitals the school uses for MD clerkships and internship.
• Ask for the pass-rate figure in writing. The 100% licensure and exit-exam pass rate claimed by the School of Nursing and Midwifery comes without a year. Ask for the cohort and the national average.
• Contact the campus, not only the main office. Health programmes are run from Asrat Woldeyes campus (+251 11 869 7157, asratwoldeyes@dbu.edu.et). Each school also lists its own email.
• Postgraduate applicants: confirm that the specialty or master's track you want is actually admitting this year. The medical school says residency programmes are still being developed.