Designing Autonomy for Impact: Addis Ababa University, Managed Autonomy, and the Knowledge Economy from a Global South Perspective

Abstract

This article analyzes Ethiopia’s transition toward university autonomy through the case of Addis Ababa University (AAU), the country’s first formally autonomous public institution. It argues that autonomy should not be understood merely as a legal transfer of authority from the state to the university. Instead, autonomy must be treated as a design problem involving governance, leadership, finance, data systems, graduate education, and organizational culture. Rather than positioning Euro‑American autonomy models as universal benchmarks, the article advances a Global South framing in which African institutional experience generates theory rather than serving only as a site of application. The article introduces designed autonomy as a concept for understanding how public universities can build meaningful self‑governance while remaining anchored to national development and public value. Ethiopian Airlines Group is used not as a template for universities to copy, but as an African example of managed autonomy under state ownership—demonstrating how professional leadership, long‑term strategy, diversified revenue, and embedded performance accountability can coexist with public stewardship. Findings indicate that AAU possesses a strong legal mandate and strategic narrative, yet continues to face constraints in data integration, decision rights, graduate funding, cross‑unit accountability, and differentiated research‑capacity development. The article concludes that autonomy in African higher education should be theorized and implemented through context‑sensitive, globally plural, and decolonial lenses that recognize multiple pathways to institutional effectiveness rather than a single Western trajectory.