Greener Journal of Educational Research ISSN: 2276-7789 Vol. 2 (3), pp. 027-041, October 2012. www.gjournals.org 27 Research Article Continuous Professional Development Program for Higher Education Academics in Ethiopia. Views, Perceived Needed Competencies and Organization in Focus Aytaged Sisay Zeleke Adjunct instructor at Delaware State University, USA. Email: aytagedz @ yahoo.com; Cell phone: 18484691574 ABSTRACT This paper is aimed at describing and exploring staff development issues in Ethiopian higher education. The principal research question of the study reads as how do the academic staff, view the need of short term continuous professional development trainings and how they prefer such trainings to be organized in Ethiopian higher education? To respond to this question, open and close ended questionnaires, interviews, documents and literature review were used as data collection instruments. The data was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The findings of the study, has shown that academic staff have mixed opinions about the need for short term continuous professional development trainings. However, the study identified the perceived needs of academic staff that might be considered while organizing staff development programs that focus on teaching and research. It also revealed what competencies, academic staff need to develop continuously in their teaching and research roles .It has also identified, why academic staff prefer professional development trainings to be organized in terms of the structure, modes of delivery, training providers, site, time, follow up, reward and recognition, and necessary conditions. Besides, the paper has provided some suggestions that may sustain the existence and quality of staff development programs/trainings. The issues suggested are related to, giving due recognition to staff development activities, providing professional development for all, budget, inclusive of monitoring and evaluation. Comparative study and comprehensive needs assessment on a large scale on the issue under focus are identified, as possible future research agenda. Keywords: Professional development, training needs, higher education INTRODUCTION The Higher education system is one of the most important knowledge, information and technology based service providers to the society. The quality of its services is highly influenced, by the quality of its human resources whose continuous professional development in terms of learning, teaching and research is mandatory to successfully address the growing challenges globalization and national contexts have brought to the sector. Enhancing the required skills and knowledge of the staff, together with promoting their level of commitment to the successful accomplishment of their institutions’ mission and goals, are unquestionably vital. Similarly, the realization of the Ethiopian higher education reform which could be related to what Carnoy (1999) called as competitiveness, finance and equity driven reforms, and which aims at alleviating poverty and improving the societal, political, and economical situations of the country (Yizengaw, 2005), is highly dependent on the quality and quantity of its human resources. Stressing on the need of quality staff, the World Bank document (1994) pointed out that, “a high quality and well motivated teaching staff and a supportive professional culture are essential in building excellence”. However, there seems to be a pressing and timely concern regarding staff recruitment and staff development in the Ethiopian higher education to achieve its objectives. To enhance and assure the quality of tertiary education, and to make it effectively and efficiently responsive to the society, the Ethiopian higher education sector has embarked on a number of professional development undertakings. The major initiatives along this line include organizing and offering short term trainings on management and leadership to high officials of HEIs, introducing a Higher Diploma Program (HDP) which is a licensing one year training program aimed at developing the skills and professionalism of teacher educators, and establishing a National Pedagogical and Resource Center (NPRC) in 2000.This center has organized and offered different trainings to the academic staff of the public universities. In addition to this an Academic Development and Resource Center (ADRC) which is responsible to offer trainings and other