With the rapid population growth and expansion of higher learning institutions unemployment of university graduates is a major socio- economic problem in Ethiopia. The main purpose of this paper is therefore, to investigate the attitude of Ethiopia public university undergraduate graduating class students towards self-employment. The population was composed of graduating class students of one government universities in Ethiopia. The data was collected through questionnaire from randomly selected 80 students of Assosa University. The data obtained through questionnaire was statistically analyzed through statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20. The research result reveals that significant number of graduating class students’ job preference right after graduation was government or private employment and majority of students do not have short- term self-employment plan in the foreseeable future after graduation. Therefore, it’s advised that universities entrepreneurship course should focus practically on development of competencies related to entrepreneurship and cultural awareness.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Public University, Self-employment
