Jimma University

Health and medical education

Jimma's health training dates from 1983, when the Jimma Institute of Health Sciences was set up. It grew out of a 1967 health assistant training school at Jimma Hospital. A School of Medicine followed in 1985. In 1999 the institute merged with the Jimma College of Agriculture to form Jimma University. Health training is now run by the university's Institute of Health.

From the start the institute was built around community-based education. Students spend structured periods working in communities through its Community Based Training Programme and team training programmes. Every undergraduate programme includes a community-based component.

Size and structure

The Institute of Health has three faculties: Medical Sciences, Health Sciences and Public Health. Between them they have 22 departments. In the institute's own figures it has about 700 academic staff, a little over 3,400 undergraduates and 1,000 master's students. It also has students in 21 PhD, 15 specialty and 5 subspecialty programmes.

Undergraduate programmes

The university's programme list gives the MD, the Doctor of Dental Medicine, and BSc degrees in anesthesia, public health (health officer), pharmacy, medical laboratory, nursing, midwifery, environmental health, physiotherapy, operation theatre nursing and neonatal nursing. Medicine and health officer training are coordinated together through a joint Medicine and Health Officer office.

Residencies

The Faculty of Medical Sciences lists specialty training in internal medicine, paediatrics and child health, anaesthesiology and critical care, ophthalmology, emergency medicine, general surgery, radiology, orthopaedics and trauma, maxillofacial surgery, endodontics, orthodontics, psychiatry and obstetrics and gynaecology. The university-wide list also includes pathology, dermatovenereology, clinical oncology and paediatric surgery. Its subspecialties are urogynaecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, paediatric haemato-oncology, neonatology, maternal–fetal medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology, and paediatric surgery.

Nursing, midwifery, pharmacy and public health

• Nursing: the School of Nursing dates to 1983. It launched Ethiopia's first post-basic BSc in nursing in 1994 and has taught at postgraduate level since 2008/09. Diploma nurses with at least two years of service can apply for its advanced-standing BSc. Master's tracks include adult health, maternity, paediatrics, emergency and critical care, neonatal and psychiatric nursing, and there is a PhD in nursing.
• Midwifery: midwifery began as a unit within nursing and became an independent department on 8 July 2020. The programme list now includes an MSc in Clinical Midwifery, an MSc in Midwifery Education and a PhD in Midwifery and Women's Health.
• Pharmacy: the School of Pharmacy opened in September 1985. The university says it was the first in Ethiopia to offer a regular pharmacy diploma. It started Ethiopia's first postgraduate clinical pharmacy programme in 2009, with support from the University of Washington. It added master's degrees in pharmaceutical supply chain management (2013) and quality assurance and regulatory affairs (2014).
• Public health: the Faculty of Public Health runs one BSc, 13 MPH/MSc and 5 PhD programmes across six departments: environmental health, epidemiology, health behaviour and society, health policy and management, nutrition and dietetics, and population and family health.

Teaching hospital

Jimma University Medical Center (formerly Jimma University Specialized Hospital) is, in the university's words, the only teaching and referral hospital in south-western Ethiopia. The original hospital dates to the 1930s. The Institute of Health puts the current centre at 600 beds, slightly over 1,000 health professionals and a catchment population of 15 million. An older university page describes about 15,000 inpatients, 160,000 outpatient visits, 11,000 emergency cases and 4,500 deliveries a year. A 2012 profile recorded 523 beds.

The hospital has faced money problems. In March 2024 The Reporter said budget constraints had forced the hospital to pause several services. Staff told the paper they had gone months without duty pay and that patients faced shortages of medicines, oxygen and equipment. The university's president called for urgent government support.

Rankings

Jimma is third in Ethiopia on EduRank for medicine, nursing, public health, pharmacy, pharmacology and obstetrics–gynaecology. It has the best Times Higher Education record of the four big public universities: 1201–1500 in the 2025 world ranking. None of Jimma's health programmes appeared on the Education and Training Authority's new online accreditation register when we checked.

The institution

Jimma University was formally established under Council of Ministers Regulation No. 63/1999, bringing together the Jimma Institute of Health Sciences and the Jimma College of Agriculture. The agriculture college's roots go back to the 1960s and a partnership with the University of Oklahoma. EduRank gives 1983, the year the health institute was founded, as the university's founding date.

The university is in Jimma, about 352 km south-west of Addis Ababa. Besides the Institute of Health it has an Institute of Technology and colleges of agriculture and veterinary medicine, natural sciences, business and economics, social sciences and humanities, law and governance, and education and behavioural sciences. There is also an Agaro campus. It uses the motto "We are in the community". On EduRank's overall list it is second in Ethiopia, and third on uniRank.

Admissions. Regular undergraduate places come through the national placement system. The Registrar handles graduate applications and publishes a graduate fee table. For Ethiopian students it lists an application fee of 200 birr for master's programmes and 400 birr for PhDs. Tuition is 450 birr per credit hour for master's courses and 900 birr per credit hour for PhD courses, with higher rates for non-Ethiopians. The page is undated, so confirm current fees.

Before you apply

• Ask which programmes on the university-wide list are taking students this year. The list includes several programmes marked "new" and some duplicated entries.
• If you are a diploma nurse or midwife, ask about the advanced-standing (post-basic) BSc and its service-year requirement.
• Ask the medical center how services and supplies stand now, given the 2024 reports of funding shortfalls.
• Expect community placements outside Jimma as part of the course. They are a core part of how Jimma teaches.
• Check accreditation and licensing-exam results for your exact programme, since Jimma's programmes are not yet on the national online register.