It is my great pleasure conveying this message as Law and Governance College (LGC) dean, at Hawassa University (HU). Law and Governance College is one of the progressive colleges within Hawassa University, which was established in 2011 as part of the HU restructuring program by then. The college runs both Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) programs within three distinct academic units. Currently, LGC is composed of two schools and one department, namely: School of Law, school of Governance and Development Studies (SGaDS) and Department of Civics and Ethical Studies. The school of Law contains one undergraduate program in Bachelor of Law (LLB) and three post graduate programs, namely:  LLM in criminal justice, LLM in land and environmental law and LLM in commercial law. Likewise, the school of Governance and Development Studies (GaDS) is composed of one under graduate program i.e. Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Governance and Development Studies and five post graduate programs, namely: MA in Development management, MA in Governance and Development, MA in peace and conflict studies, MA in public management and policy development and MA in international relations and diplomacy. The department of Civics and Ethics contain two under graduate programs, namely: Bachelor of Art (BA) in Civics and Ethical Studies and Bachelor of Education (BED) in Civics and Ethical Education. Moreover, this department also hosted one MA program, MA in Civics and Ethical Studies and one doctoral program in Doctor of Education (DED) in Civics and Ethicals Studies. In addition to the academic programs hosted within the college structure, Law and Governance College is providing various common courses (Logic and Critical Thinking, Global Affairs and Moral and Citizenship) for all freshman program students across Hawassa University. 

As one of the research universities in Ethiopia, Hawassa University in general and the College of Law and Governance in particular are striving diligently to advance the academic and research engagements of the staff and its graduates. The academic staffs of College of Law and Governance actively engaged on various research activities related to law, human right, constitution and constitutionalism, election and electoral systems, democracy and good governance, conflict management, international relations, diplomacy, moral and ethics, public management, environmental management, population studies, policy analysis and etc. By their very nature, the academic fields of studies within CLG are accommodative and multidisciplinary for most social science field of studies. Disciplinary, thematic and collaborative research activities are among others, where the college academic staffs are widely contributing to the academia and problem solving findings to the local community.

Community engagement is the other pillar of the academic institutions in Ethiopia, where CLG is highly striving to make it reality. To this effect, the CLG has been widely working on Free Legal Aid (FLA) support for vulnerable group of the society among the local communities. Local Capacity Building programs through training schemes are the other community engagement system of CLG where several local community members were addressed. Moreover, international institutional collaboration is also among others that the college is highly striving to attain it. Subsequently, the college was successful so far in securing social project funds from EU, ILO, USAID and British-Council that engaged on free legal aid services, Industrial Park labor affairs, community peace building and University peace education affairs.  

With all these concerns in mind, College of Law and Governance is diligently working for academic excellence of the existing programs and to launch other related post graduate programs with a due academic quality and standard. Furthermore, the college promptly engages on research and community engagement projects at large scale. Hence, we sincerely invite you all to access and follow HU website for the update information about CLG and we are thankful for that in advance.

Debrework Debebe (PhD)

Dean, for College of Law and Governance

Hawassa University