Ethiopian Catholic University of St. Thomas Aquinas

Health and medical education

The Ethiopian Catholic University of St. Thomas Aquinas (ECUSTA) is the Catholic Church's higher-education institution in Ethiopia. Its website now calls it the ECUSTA Higher Learning Institute, and its logo reads "Ethiopian Catholic Higher Learning Institute". It is a small institution with three faculties: Medicine, Health Science and Social Science. Medicine is its main health programme.

Doctor of Medicine

• Length: ECUSTA describes the MD as a 6½-year modular programme. Basic sciences are taught alongside clinical and community medicine.
• Structure: two pre-clinical years (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology), then clinical rotations in internal medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology and psychiatry. The final stage is a supervised internship that includes community health postings. The clinical rotations page describes a 52-week internship.
• Facilities: the college says it uses an Anatomage table for virtual 3D dissection.
• Leadership: the programme page names Dr. Wesen Teklehaimanot as Dean of the School of Medicine.
• Entry: the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS) records an entrance exam. ECUSTA also admits international students; their school certificates must first be evaluated by the Education and Training Authority (ETA).

The World Directory of Medical Schools lists the school as entry F0006376 and dates MD teaching from 2018. ECUSTA's own history page gives 2018 as the year its "first batch of medical doctors" graduated. The two dates don't fit together, so ask the college when its first MD class was admitted and when it graduated. A 2016 AMECEA report said the university then taught laboratory science, social work and IT, and was planning to add medicine. A 2022 La Salle International article reported 38 students training to be doctors.

Clinical training

ECUSTA has no hospital of its own. Its students train at four public hospitals in Addis Ababa, under what the college calls tripartite memorandums of understanding:

• St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College (Gulele): the main site for internal medicine, general surgery and emergency medicine.
• ALERT Comprehensive Specialized Hospital: trauma and orthopaedics, dermatology, reconstructive surgery.
• Zewditu Memorial Hospital: obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, the ART clinic.
• Yekatit 12 Hospital Medical College: emergency care, outpatient clinics, burns and plastic surgery.

The bed counts above (700+, 450+, 300+, 350+) are ECUSTA's own figures.

Other health programmes

• Medical Laboratory Science (MLS / MLT): the college says it has a new Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory with automated clinical chemistry, haematology and PCR equipment. Students train in it, and it also takes referral samples.
• Nursing Competency Enhancement Program (NCEP): ECUSTA reports that it is one of three hosts of this national Ministry of Health programme for practising nurses; St. Paul's and Tikur Anbessa are the other two. ECUSTA's 2026 cohort is 36 nurses from health facilities across Ethiopia, who rotate clinically at ALERT. This is in-service training, not a nursing degree.

We found no nursing, midwifery, pharmacy or public health degree at ECUSTA.

Accreditation, rankings and exam claims

• ECUSTA's own statements: it says it is "fully accredited" by HERQA, the regulator replaced by the Education and Training Authority. It lists the MD, BSc Medical Laboratory Technology and BA Social Work as accredited, and it posts a HERQA certificate.
• ETA register: on 4 November 2026, no ECUSTA programme was on the authority's new online register. That register lists only 13 certificates so far, all at public institutions, so this does not mean the programme is unaccredited. Ask for the current letter.
• Exit exam: ECUSTA's clinical rotations page claims a "100% National Exit Exam Pass Rate" without a year. The Ministries have not published results by school, so treat this as the college's own figure.
• Rankings: ECUSTA does not appear on EduRank's Ethiopia lists or on uniRank.

The institution

ECUSTA's history page dates the idea to 1997, when Prime Minister Meles Zenawi asked Pope John Paul II for a Catholic university. The government and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ethiopia signed the founding agreement in 2005. The site's "Established 1997" counter refers to that 1997 request.

• Management: since 2017 the De La Salle Brothers have run the institution. Br. Augustine Nicoletti, FSC, was the first Brother President; the current president is Br. Kassu McFantaye, FSC. ECUSTA is a member of the International Association of La Salle Universities.
• Legal status: a private, non-profit institution.
• Other programmes: Social Work, with Computer Science and Accounting and Finance listed as "under works".

The campus is at Lebu Varnero Square in Nifas Silk-Lafto sub-city (Woreda 01). Office hours are Monday to Friday 8:00–17:00, plus Saturday mornings according to the contact page.

Admission and fees:

• How to apply: directly to the institute, not through national placement. Undergraduate admissions for 2026/27 opened on 26 August and closed on 15 September 2026.
• Fees: ECUSTA does not publish them. It asks applicants to contact the Finance Office or Registrar.
• Payment: all fees go through Berhan Bank branches using the SchoolPay system. No cash is accepted on campus.
• Financial help: the institute says it offers need-based support, handled by the Office of the President.

Before you apply

• Ask when the first MD class was admitted and graduated. The World Directory and ECUSTA's own history give conflicting dates.
• Ask for the Education and Training Authority's current accreditation letter for the MD and for your intake year. The HERQA certificate on the website is from the authority's predecessor.
• Ask how the time at St. Paul's, ALERT, Zewditu and Yekatit 12 is split, and how students travel from Nifas Silk-Lafto to each hospital.
• Ask for exit-exam results by year, with numbers sitting and passing, rather than a single percentage.
• Get the current fee schedule, including laboratory fees, in writing from the Finance Office before you pay at the bank.