Bahir Dar University is a university in the city of Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara National Regional State in Ethiopia. The University is a combination of two smaller institutes formed earlier, after the departments were gradually raised to a degree level starting from 1996. Bahir Dar University was created from the merger of two former higher institutions. The first was Bahir Dar Polytechnic Institute, which formed one of the faculties of the University, was established in 1963 under the technical cooperation between the Government of USSR and the Imperial Government of Ethiopia. The objective of the institute was to train skilled technicians in the fields of Agro-Mechanics, Industrial Chemistry and Metal, Textile, Electrical and Wood Technologies. The Institute had to undergo number of program changes within the area of technology until the commencement of the Engineering degree program 1996. Throughout these program changes, the institute did all what it could to supply the labor market with the best technicians who are now running most of the businesses in the industrial, educational, agricultural and other sectors.