Addis Ababa institute of Technology is among the highest ranked engineering and technology institutes in the nation with five schools, over 15 chairs, four research centers and over 400 faculty members. Admission standards for undergraduates are becoming rigorous and expectations of faculty achievement are high. As such, it is an appropriate institution to attract, teach, and develop the best and brightest minds in engineering.

The Railway Engineering programs were designed in 2012 for the following objectives such as to train high-level professionals capable of solving practical engineering problems and to develop the research experience of the staff members of the school. The graduate program offered advanced instruction in basic and engineering sciences involving students actively in scientific research with their supervisors, acquiring the spirit as well as the skills in productive scholarship.

Since 2014, the program was administered by Railway Engineering center (REC) which owned three MSc. programs namely Railway engineering majored in Civil Infrastructure, Rolling Stock Engineering, and Railway in Electrical Engineering. The center run the programs; evaluate the outcomes of the curriculum and plan for the betterment of the program. In line to this, a program review and study was conducted for the program, and the weak links of the program were identified from the survey result (the graduates, faculty and stakeholders). The survey study result shows a revision of the program is needed. Other factors for the revision of the curriculum are but not limited to; the establishment of railway center of excellence, ACE II – African Railway Education and Research Institute (ARERI), as per the AAU guideline the program should be revised, and the need to meet the national and regional demand and excellence up to international accreditations. Therefore, the center stressed on a major program revision for a robust railway engineering education and research at the AAiT.

Accordingly, ARERI revised the curricula to address the aforementioned findings of the program review; the feedbacks collected from each course instructors and the compiled best experiences of international universities. As a result nomeleclature of the programs are also changed and ARERI currently runs MSc in Civil Infrastructure, Rolling Stock Engineering, Traction and Train Controlling and the newly added MSc in Railway System Management.