Nestled in the beautiful town of Bahir Dar at the shore of Lake Tana and the Blue Nile River, Bahir Dar University (BDU) is established by merging two former higher education institutions; namely the Bahir Dar polytechnic and Bahir Dar Teachers' College which had been established in 1963 and 1972 respectively. Those two HEIs were merged to form Bahir Dar University in 2000 G.C. BDU is now among the largest universities in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with a student population of over 40 thousand in its 340 programs (104 Undergraduate and 225 Postgraduate programs- of which 170 are second degree and 55 are third degree) and 7 Specialty and 4 Certificate programs). It has 1638 academic staff on duty (of whom 278 are with PhD, 1028 are with MA/MSc, 69 with Specialty and Subspecialty and the remaining 266 are with BA/BSc degree). BDU has now 793 academic staff members on study leave. It has 4893 administrative and support staff. The university has now five Colleges, two Faculties, four Institutes, two Schools, two Academies and nine fully functioning campuses. Vision: Becoming one of the ten premier research universities in Africa by 2025.Mission: Contributing substantially to the nation and beyond through high quality education, research and community services.Motto:: Wisdom at the Source of the Blue NileGuiding Values: Pursuit of wisdom, Excellence, Innovation, Social Responsibility, Diversity and Internationalization.As BDU is aspiring to become a research intensive university, it has already given special attention to the establishment of Research Centres in some selected areas. Hence the University has now 12 Research Centres:BDU has already been chosen as Center of Excellence in some key fields:* National Center of Excellence (CoE) in: 1. Teacher Education & Leadership Studies 2. Textile Engineering,* Regional Center of Excellence (CoE) in: 1. Land Administration 2. Maritime 3. Disaster Risk Mgt. & Food Security Studies