Gamby Medical and Business College

Health and medical education

Gamby is one of the oldest private medical schools in Ethiopia and one of the few outside Addis Ababa. Its most useful feature for a health student is easy to see: the college and its own hospital, GAMBY Teaching General Hospital, share one campus in Bahir Dar. The college says the hospital's staff "also serve on the faculty".

Medicine

The World Directory of Medical Schools lists Gamby as a private school that has taught medicine since 2012. A 2020 history of medical education in the Ethiopian Medical Journal names "Gambe medical school" among the first private medical schools in the country, along with Hayat, Bethel, Africa, Myungsung and Santé. The same article warns that "many of the newly opened private medical schools run the teaching through part-time teachers". That is a general point about private schools, not a finding about Gamby, but it is worth asking any college about.

In September 2025 the college opened registration for new Doctor of Medicine students for the 2018 E.C. (2025/26) academic year. Its Amharic notice set these entry routes:

• 2015/16 or 2014/15 E.C. national exam: a score of 350 or above.
• 2013/14 E.C. national exam: 363 or above in the first round, or 423 or above in the second round.
• Remedial programme: a pass in the remedial exam at a public university or a private college.
• Graduates: anyone with a bachelor's degree in any health field who can have an official transcript sent to the college.

Applicants pay a 650 birr application fee plus one month's fee, and register in person at the registrar's office. The notice does not give the monthly fee.

Nursing, public health, pharmacy and laboratory science

The college's 2018 E.C. undergraduate notice lists regular degree programmes in:

• public health
• medical laboratory science
• comprehensive nursing
• pharmacy

Applicants from Grade 12 needed 300 to 350 out of 700 (natural science), depending on the year they sat the exam. Holders of a Level IV health diploma could apply with a competency (COC) certificate, two years' work experience and a pass in the college's own entrance exam.

The site's menu also lists Midwifery, Clinical Pharmacy and an MPH in Reproductive Health. Those programme pages did not load when we checked, so confirm whether they still take students.

At postgraduate level, the college invited applications for a Master of Public Health (MPH) in 2025/26, in regular and extension modes. The MPH is open to graduates in any health field and several other disciplines, and requires a pass in the National Graduate Admission Test (NGAT). Applications could be made in person or online through the college's student system, GAMBY ISMIS (gamby.educsys.et).

For 2017 E.C., Gamby also recruited Level IV (TVET) students in pharmacy, nursing and laboratory.

The teaching hospital

GAMBY Teaching General Hospital began as a junior clinic in 1988 E.C. (about 1996). The site lists these services:

• dialysis
• emergency and intensive care
• specialty and sub-specialty clinics
• laboratory and diagnostic imaging, including CT
• maternal and child health
• pharmacy

The hospital makes two claims about itself:

• Laboratory accreditation: its laboratory has been accredited to ISO 15189:2012 by the Ethiopian National Accreditation Office since 2019.
• Quality awards: it placed second, third and first in the 5th, 6th and 7th rounds of the Ethiopian quality award (2018, 2019 and 2020).

Both are self-reported. We did not find them on the awarding bodies' own sites.

Accreditation and rankings

• ETA register: on 4 November 2026, none of Gamby's programmes appeared on the Education and Training Authority's online accreditation register. The register is new and lists only 13 certificates so far, all at public institutions. Being absent from it does not mean a programme is unaccredited, but you should ask the college for the authority's current letter for your exact programme.
• Rankings: Gamby does not appear on EduRank, uniRank or Times Higher Education. These sites mostly rank universities by research output.

The institution

Gamby Medical and Business College belongs to GAMBY PLC, a Bahir Dar company founded in 1996. The company describes itself as "a multi-specialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education". It has three sister businesses:

• GAMBY Teaching General Hospital
• GAMBY Medical and Business College
• GAMBY Pharmaceuticals & Medical Equipment Supplies Distributer (GAP_MED), which it describes as the first private pharmaceutical wholesaler in Bahir Dar

The college was earlier known as Gamby College of Medical Sciences. Besides health, it teaches business: management and accounting and finance at bachelor's level, plus an MBA and an MSc in Accounting and Finance. We did not find an official founding year for the college itself; one aggregator gives 1998, which we could not confirm.

Campus: the campus is near the Textile area of Bahir Dar and spans "nearly 10 buildings". These hold the hospital's inpatient and outpatient services, the college's laboratories, classrooms and library, and cafeterias and parking. The hospital and the college have separate gates, and the administrative offices are at the front entry of the college side. The college also lists an Addis Ababa phone line.

Admission: as a private college, Gamby recruits directly. You apply to the registrar with your national exam results, not through government placement. The admissions notices are posted in Amharic on the hospital website.

Before you apply

• Ask for the Education and Training Authority's accreditation or licence letter for the exact programme and intake year, especially for Medicine.
• Ask what the monthly fee is for your programme. The 2025/26 notices only say that one month's fee is due at registration.
• Ask how many Medicine teachers are full-time, and which clinical rotations happen outside GAMBY Teaching General Hospital, for example at public hospitals in Bahir Dar.
• Ask for the college's recent results in the national exit exam and the medical licensing exam.
• Check that Midwifery, Clinical Pharmacy and the MPH in Reproductive Health still take students; their pages on the college website were not working.
• Call the Bahir Dar lines or the mobile number above to confirm details. The Addis Ababa number on the website looks incomplete.