1. April 27, 2017 Birhanu Beshah Capital Hotel
The African Railway Education and Research Institute (ARERI) Management of Partnership
April 27, 2017
Birhanu Beshah
Capital Hotel

2. Outline Why Partnership? Partnership with sector industry
Partnership with HEIs
Areas of partnership with HEIs
Work on progress
Challenges in establishing partnership
Way out to address challenges
Issues that need IUCEA’s and WB’s attention

3. Why Partnership? African Center of Excellence
Requires high quality inputs in terms of professionals or facilities and
Serve the industry and the society at large
For these two reasons ACEs need partners from higher learning institutions and sector industries

4. Partnership with Sector Industry
Education service agreement signed between AAIT and ERC in 2012 to train more than 500 engineers at MSc level in the field of Civil infrastructure, rolling stock and traction and train control.
In 2014 the university recognizing the importance of the program established the Railway Engineering Center
More than 330 students completed their study and serving the industry
Around 30 Djibouti students are attending the program
About 80 students are expected to complete in this academic year
We have 15 students fully supported by DAAD in train control and traction department in two batches

5. Cont’d
The first railway conference held in collaboration with Ethiopian Railways Corporation on October 5, 2016.
A joint team from Addis Ababa University and Ethiopian Railways Corporation is formed to find a way to convert research outputs into business.
I have got a joint appointment
We are trying to emulate the case of ERC to Kenya and Tanzania Railways

6. Partnership with HEIs National Partners Regional Partners
Jimma University
Bahirdar University
Semera University
Diredawa University
Regional Partners
Makerere University, Uganda
Dar-es-Salaam University, Tanzania
University of Djibouti
Railway Training Institute in Kenya

7. Cont’d International Partners South West Jiao Tong University, China
Indian Institute of Technology
Korean Railroad Research Institute
The Korean Society of Railway
Norwegian University of Science & Technology
University of Birmingham

8. Areas of Partnership with HEIs
Staff and student exchange
Staff exchange,
Student exchange and
Scholarship quota
Academic and Policy Research and Publication
Joint PhD supervision,
Joint research,
Research publication,
Policy briefs and
Commercialization research outputs

9. Cont’d Institutional Capacity Building Sectoral Capacity Building
Staff capacity building,
Staff selection,
Curriculum Development,
Laboratory equipment procurement,
Sharing facilities and
Benchmarking best practices
Sectoral Capacity Building
Standards development,
Consultancy services

10. Work on Progress
Invited and involved partners in a program review and design (Feb. 09, 2017)
MSc programs in civil infrastructure, rolling stock and traction and train control
New PhD program in railway engineering and management
ARERI held inception workshop (Feb. 10, 2017)
Independent discussion with all our partners SWJTU, KRRI, NTNU, ERC, Regional and National
Pay Visit to South Korea (March 26 – May 01, 2017)
KRRI, Seoul National University, KIST, KIMM

11. Cont’d South West Jiatong University (SWJTU)
MoU signed
Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs)
MoU and Action Plan preparation completed
Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI)
We still need to convince KRRI to sign MoU

12. Challenges in Partnership
Time to establish a workable partnership
Commitment of the lead personals
Willingness to allocate resources for the partnership
Maximizing both parties benefits
The need for more financial resources
Weak HEIs and Industry linkage

13. Way out to address the challenges
Joint proposal writing
SWJTU – Chain Scholarship Council
KRRI – STEPI
University of Birmingham – DFID
Will follow the same strategies with other partners

14. Issues that need IUCEA’s/WB’s attention
Identifying and Recommending for additional funds – India
WB could deal with DFID
Support in creating sector partnership
IUCEA and WB shall support ARERI in creating partnership with African Railway Companies

15. Thank you!!