The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) has implemented tremendous development changes in the country and one of the policies designed by the government to bring about rapid and sustainable development is the education and training policy. As it is known there were only two public universities in Ethiopia twenty years ago. Now, the number of public learning institutes have increased more than 45 in the country, among them is the Gambella University which is situated in Gambella People National Regional State (GPNRS) is one of the recently established higher education institutions in Ethiopia. Its cornerstone was laid by FDRE Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and GPNRS president Gatluak Tut on 28th April, 2014.
Gambella University is located at Gambella town, the capital of GPNRS which is 766 km far from Addis Ababa. At the beginning the institution was established as Gambella Agricultural, Technical, Vocational and Educational Training (GATVET) College which was organized and managed by the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and GPNRS and Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2002 to 2012 to produce middle level Agricultural Developmental Agents. During ten years (2002-2012) more than 1,950 students were graduated on Animal Science, Natural Resource, Plant Science and Cooperative Departments in the Diploma program / (level IV). Moreover, more than 493 General Agriculture students were graduated within the Certificate Program.
Later on, based on the agreement made between the Ministry of Education and Regional stakeholders, it was affiliated with Mettu University and become the College of Agriculture and Natural Resource campus from 2012 to 2013/14 with (Animal Science, Plant Science, Natural Resource Management and Agricultural Economics) departments.
As an independent institution Gambella University was proclaimed by the Council of Ministry under Proclamation No. 317/2006 and assumes its institutional mandate. Right after, the establishment of Gambella University in 2014 opened a new chapter in the history of the Gambella Region and the people. Soon after, the University was introduced to the public and 514 students were assigned to study in College of
Agriculture and Natural Resource and Faculty of Business and Economics with thirteen Departments and currently there are 31 undergraduate programs and two Colleges College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, College of Engineering and School of law Faculty of Business and Economics, Faculty of social Science and Humanity, and Faculty of Natural and Computational science. Additionally, the university already launch Postgraduate Program in Animal Production independently and three Postgraduate programs (Project Planning and Management, Development Studies and Master of Business Administration) in collaboration with Green Research Development Institute (GRDI).
Even though Gambella University is at its infancy stage, the host region has potential and gifted natural resources (Livestock, Fish, Apiculture, Park, Soil, Forest, Multi Crops and Minerals) and internally committed academic, supporting staff and reliable stakeholders. Based on the university’s strategic plan GmU is „envisaging to be one of the recognized academic and research center in Africa by 2030‟ in its core four strategic pillars namely Educational Quality and Relevance, Research and Technology Transfer, Community Service and Partnership, and Good Governance of the university is to realize it’s given mission by HEI Proclamation No. 650/2009 Article 4.