Hawassa University (HU) was established in Hawassa on the 25th of April 2000; at this time there was no Internet connection to speak of, except for a few dial-up connections at some offices. Specifically, there was one in the Library that served one University staff at a time mainly for sending/receiving e-mail messages.
After the establishment of the ICT Center in late 2000 with some 20 computers at its disposal, a shared dial-up Internet connection was introduced which, for the first time, started to serve the University staff to get access to the Internet (WWW and EMAIL).
In the year 2003, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has sponsored the establishment of campus-wide networks at the Awassa College of Agriculture, Wondogenet College of Forestry and Dilla College of Teachers Education and Health Sciences (DCTEHS). Soon after the deployment of the network, a broadband Internet connection was introduced.
In the year 2008, a campus-wide network was established at the main campus. Moreover, the three campuses at Hawassa City, i.e. the Main Campus, the College of Health Sciences and the College of Agriculture, were interconnected via fiber-optic cables and these campuses were connected to the Internet through two gateways (at the Main Campus and the Awassa College of Agriculture).
Finally, in the year 2014 started an expansion of the existing network infrastructure so as to cover all the buildings that were not included in the previous two phases and also interconnect the Wondogent campus to the campuses in Hawassa city. The current network infrastructure is 10GB bandwidth support capacity in five campuses, i.e Main Campus, Technology Institute, College of Health Sciences, College of Agriculture, and Wondogenet College of Forestry.
Mission
Our mission is to provide, coordinate, and facilitate the use of ICT in all activities of the University in order to facilitate change.
Vision
Our vision is to exploit ICT to its full potential thereby assisting the University in elevating its position to a center of academic excellence.
Objectives
The ICT Directorate office was established to meet the following objectives:
- To plan, develop and manage University-wide ICT infrastructure
- To develop/acquire relevant applications
- To manage operations and maintenance of ICT resources
- To train end-users on computer literacy and offer end-user computing support
- To promote staff development program to ensure that ICT staff continue to acquire the necessary skills to provide high-quality services and support
- To advise and consult the University management on the acquisition of ICT resources and related issues
- Carry out researches in ICT
Achievements of the Office
Achievements of the ICT Directorate office may be summarized as:
- Establishment of the ICT Directorate office in the year 2009, following the BPR study.
- Recruitment of above 75 staff on the basis of permanent to work under the directorate office.
- The networking of all existing campuses, interconnecting the campuses and introduction of broadband network for use both by staff and students.
- Developing relevant applications for the university and other external offices.
Teams under ICT Directorate:
The directorate’s governance structure represents five operational teams:
- Network and ICT Infrastructure Team
- IT Teaching and Learning Support Team
- Software and Application Development Team
- ICT Maintenance Team
- ICT Training Center
