The history of postgraduate teaching in the new Department of Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology is not different from that of its mother department, the Department of Biotechnology. The Department of Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology was formed together with other two departments: Medical Biotechnology and Agricultural Biotechnology. The department has postgraduate programs at MSc and PhD levels. The Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology Department simply inherited the postgraduate programs of the Department of Biotechnology. Thus, the postgraduate teaching experience of the Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology Department is as long as that of the mother Department.
The history of postgraduate teaching in the mother department, Department of Biotechnology began by the opening of the MSc program in 2011 followed by the PhD program in 2017 in four fields of study.
- The MSc and PhD programs of the Department of Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology are organized in two streams of specializations and include Industrial Biotechnology and Environmental Biotechnology.
The mission of the Department of Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology is to prepare students for professional careers in the areas of Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology. The Department is also responsible for the education of undergraduate and graduate students in core general microbiology, industrial biotechnology, microbial biotechnology, fundamentals of food technology, biosafety, bioethics and intellectual property rights, biodiversity and conservation, enzyme technology, environmental biotechnology, aquatic biotechnology, fuel biotechnology, fundamentals of biochemical engineering course as well as more specialized areas that require detailed knowledge of the two streams. To accomplish this mission, Department of Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology offers curricula that will lead to Bachelor of Science degrees in Biotechnology, Masters of Science degrees (Environmental Biotechnology and Industrial Biotechnology) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Environmental Biotechnology and Industrial Biotechnology).
The vision of the Department of Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology is to become one of the leading departments in the University of Gondar in terms of offering quality education, fetching grant, doing research, undertaking community service and in technology transfer activities in 2025.