Jimma University and medical laboratory science
A university built on community-based education
Jimma University’s origins go back to 1952, when the Jimma College of Agriculture was founded. The Jimma Institute of Health Sciences followed in 1983. The two merged in December 1999 to form Jimma University.
The university’s motto is “We are in the Community!” JU is known in Ethiopia for Community-Based Education (CBE), which uses the community as a major learning environment and links learning to community needs.
Jimma is in the Oromia Region, about 350 km south-west of Addis Ababa.
The Institute of Health includes the Faculty of Health Sciences, created in 2017. It has four schools: Nursing, Pharmacy, Medical Laboratory Sciences and Midwifery. The faculty’s motto is “CARES”: Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, Excellence, Success.
Medical laboratory training at Jimma
The school was established in 1988 within the former Jimma Institute of Health Sciences, starting with diploma students. A post-basic BSc for diploma graduates began in 1998, and the generic Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Technology in 2002.
Today the school offers regular and evening BSc programmes, MSc programmes and PhD programmes. The MSc programmes are Medical Microbiology; Medical Parasitology; and Clinical Laboratory Sciences, with specialties in Hematology and Immunohematology and in Laboratory Management. The PhD programmes are Medical Microbiology, and Tropical and Infectious Diseases.
The school has five course teams: Medical Microbiology, Medical Parasitology, Hematology and Immunohematology, Clinical Chemistry, and Immunology and Molecular Biology.
Its vision is “to be one of the renowned medical laboratory professionals’ training schools in Africa.”
Where the chapter fits
- Institute of Health (opens in a new tab)
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- School of Medical Laboratory Sciences (opens in a new tab)(the Department of Medical Laboratory Science)
- JUMLSA