Debre Markos University

Health and medical education

Debre Markos's health training is run by the College of Health Sciences on the university's Health Campus. The college says it started in 2007/08 with two departments, nursing and public health, and 91 students. Midwifery and a public health master's (regular and extension) followed in 2011. Pharmacy and medical laboratory science were added in 2015, and health informatics and human nutrition in 2016. Paediatrics and child health nursing and environmental health came next.

Medicine

The university's news pages describe a School of Medicine. One graduation report says it was graduating its second batch of doctors, 39 graduates including 6 women, from what it called the "New Innovative Medicine" programme. The report is undated. Wikipedia says 126 doctors had graduated over three rounds, but that figure is uncited. Before their clinical internship, fifth-year students must pass a comprehensive qualification exam, set by school staff and outside physicians. Students who fail one subject repeat it over seven weeks; those who fail more repeat the year's subjects. The university says it works with Debre Markos Referral Hospital for clinical attachments and internships, and that more than 40 doctors had received scholarships for specialty training. We did not find a current official page listing the medical school's departments or any residency programmes. Ask the university directly.

Undergraduate health degrees

The Health Campus lists nine undergraduate programmes: nursing, paediatrics and child health nursing, midwifery, pharmacy (B.Pharm), medical laboratory science, public health, human nutrition and food science, health informatics and environmental health. Some department dates are given in two calendars, such as "2008/2015" for pharmacy. Read these as Ethiopian/Gregorian years. Pharmacy opened in about 2015/16 and offers a regular programme only. When its page was written it had 40 academic staff and was working towards an MSc in pharmacology and a post-basic pharmacy degree. Health informatics took its first 34 students in 2009 E.C. (about 2016/17).

Postgraduate programmes

The college's postgraduate page lists a general MPH and MPH tracks in epidemiology, reproductive health, nutrition, environmental health and biostatistics. It also lists MSc programmes in adult health nursing, maternity nursing, integrated clinical and community mental health, medical microbiology, medical parasitology, pharmacology and medical anatomy. The college's PhD page was empty when we checked. The public health department, founded in 2001 E.C. (2008/09), reported teaching about 897 students.

Teaching hospital

The university's hospital page describes Debre Markos Hospital as a key facility for the Amhara Region. It says the hospital is not officially part of the university but works with the College of Health Sciences on training, research and outreach. University news calls it Debre Markos Referral Hospital. Recent research papers also call it Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. We did not find a bed count.

Accreditation and rankings

None of Debre Markos's programmes appeared on the Education and Training Authority's online accreditation register when we checked. The register had only 13 entries nationwide. We could not check the World Directory of Medical Schools, which blocked automated access.

Debre Markos does better on research rankings than its age would suggest. EduRank puts it 5th in Ethiopia for critical-care research, ahead of Bahir Dar, Haramaya and Hawassa. It is 7th for nursing, 8th for medicine and pharmacology, and 9th for public health. Overall it is 11th on EduRank and 19th on uniRank.

The institution

Debre Markos University is in Debre Markos, the main town of East Gojjam in the Amhara Region, near the Choke Mountains. Its founding date is unclear. Wikipedia gives January 2005 (inaugurated November 2007), and the university's registrar says teaching began in 2006/07 with 760 students in one college and eight departments. It was not among the 2020 research universities.

The university has a main campus in Debre Markos, a Health Campus, a campus at Burie, and a registrar branch at the Belay Zeleke campus in Bichena. Regular undergraduates are placed through the national system after the entrance exam.

Before you apply

• Health programmes are on the Health Campus, not the main campus. Confirm where first-year students live.
• Ask whether there are any residency (specialty) programmes. We found none listed.
• The teaching hospital is not run by the university. Ask how clinical placements and internships are organised and supervised.
• Several department pages on the Health Campus site look years old. Confirm current programmes with the registrar (+251 58 171 6770) before you choose.
• Ask for the ETA accreditation letter for your programme.