College Research Associate

Dr Mesele Araya

PhD

Mesele Araya
Mesele Araya

Mesele Araya is a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge—Research for Equitable Access and Learning—REAL Center. He has a PhD in Human Capital from the University of Bergamo (Italy) and an MSc in Economics from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia). Mesele conducts research in education and learning by applying mixed methods in the Global South. With the application of system thinking, he mainly focuses on improving education quality and equity in a low-income setting.

Currently, Mesele is working on the RISE project that aims to understand how the Ethiopian General Education Quality Improvement Program-Equity (GEQIP-E) has recently supported equitable learning by following a longitudinal research approach with a mixed method that combines education system diagnostics, political economy analysis of learning, quantitative surveys and qualitative data, including school-based case studies.

Before joining the University of Cambridge, Mesele worked on several longitudinal research projects, including Young Lives of the University of Oxford, Early Learning Partnership (ELP) of the World Bank and Gender & Adolescence Global Evidence (GAGE) of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Mesele has also taught at Addis Ababa University since 2015 and currently supervises undergraduate students at the Faculty of Education.

Mesele is interested in collaborating with those contributing to current debates on access, quality and equity of learning/education in the Global South.

Research Interests
  • Foundational skills and human capital
  • Access to early learning
  • Inequality of learning outcomes
  • Educational intervention programs/reforms
  • Impact monitoring and evaluation: mixed methods
Links to online publications, articles or other work
  • Araya, M., Rolleston, C., Rose, P., Sabates, R., Tiruneh, D. and Woldehanna, T. 2023. Understanding the Impact of Large-Scale Educational Reform on Students’ Learning Outcomes in Ethiopia: The GEQIP-II Case. RISE Working Paper Series. 23/125. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-WP_2023/125
  • Araya, M., Rose, P., Sabates, R., Tiruneh, D.T. and Woldehanna, T. 2022. Learning Losses during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ethiopia: Comparing Student Achievement in Early Primary Grades before School Closures, and After They Reopened. RISE Insight Series. 2022/049. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-RI_2022/049
  • Pankhurst, A., Araya, M., Tiumelissan, A., & Birhanu, K. (2022). ‘A dream come true’? Adolescents’ perspectives on urban relocation and life in condominiums in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Journal of Eastern African Studies,  16(1),

 https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2135246

  • Makika, M. D., Matovu, F., Matovu, W., & Araya, M. (2022). Effect of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure on Household Welfare: Evidence from Uganda National Household Survey: 2016–2017. Tanzanian Economic Review, 12(2). https://ter.udsm.ac.tz/index.php/ter/article/view/94
  • Kim, J.H., Araya, M., Hailu, B.H. et al. 2021. The Implications of COVID-19 for Early Childhood Education in Ethiopia: Perspectives from Parents and Caregivers. Early Childhood Education Journal 49, 855–867 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01214-0
Email
ma990@cam.ac.uk
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