Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, [email protected]
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa, the Chancellor of all State Universities, yesterday capped 126 Gwanda State University graduates at the institution’s third graduation ceremony held at its Epoch Mine campus in Insiza District, Matabeleland South.
The graduates are from the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, and the Faculty of Natural Resources Management and Agriculture. Of these, 31 were females, with 23 from the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment.
Eleven were from the Department of Mining Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering respectively, while Geomatics and Surveying had one graduate. There were eight female graduates from the Faculty of Natural Resources Management and Agriculture, three from the Department of Animal Science and five from Crop Science.
Notably, Senzelweyinkosi Ngwenya was the day’s poster girl, bagging 13 awards, including the Chancellor’s Award for having the most innovative research project in the Department of Animal Science, the Vice Chancellor’s Award, and the University Book Prize, among others.
She also walked away with The Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Chancellor’s Award of US$1 000 for being the overall best graduating female student.
President Mnangagwa was accompanied by the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development, Dr Frederick Shava, his permanent secretary, Professor Fanuel Tagwira, and Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Dr Evelyn Ndlovu. In her welcome speech, GSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Doreen Moyo underlined the university’s efforts to improve its administrative and management structures and systems by enacting and implementing robust policies and standard operating procedures across all departments and sections of the university.
“The university’s efforts to achieve maximum administrative efficiency and effectiveness are being undermined by high staff attrition, especially at senior academic and administrative levels. This challenge is compounded by the fact that the institution is unable to attract and retain senior management staff because it has no capacity to meet their contractual obligations,” said Prof Moyo before revealing shocking staff turnover statistics.
She said last year, the university lost 23 staff members (11 academic and 12 non-academic) through attrition, and this year, it has lost 31 staff members, of whom eight are from academics and 23 non-academic, also through attrition.
“In keeping with the guidance you gave us during the last graduation, the university continues to increase access to higher education for the people of Zimbabwe through the introduction of new and innovative programmes which speak to the nation’s aspiration to industrialise and modernise the economy.
“To that end, Your Excellency and Chancellor, the University is set to operationalise the Faculty of Computational Sciences, which is scheduled to offer nine programmes under two departments, namely, the Department of Applied Mathematics and the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems,” she said.
She said the programmes that will kick-start the Faculty include the Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Applied Mathematics, Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Mathematics and Statistics, Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Information Systems, Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Computer Science, and Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Software Engineering, which will be rolled out next year.
“I cannot emphasise enough that high-end skills and knowledge in Computational Sciences are essential for Zimbabwe’s industrialisation and modernisation agenda under the current Fourth Industrial Revolution, which has since been brought to its inflection point by the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI),” said Prof Moyo.
She said the University, through the Information Communication Technology Department, developed an integrated Student Management System, paving the way for the digitisation of student services such as admissions, registration, fees payment, and examination processing.
A Student Verification System that allows anyone from anywhere to verify if the student is bona fide by scanning the Student Identification Card was also developed. She added that the number of students under the work-for-fees programme increased from one last year to six this year, and the university hopes to expand the programme next year to ensure that indigent students are not left behind.
Prof Moyo said that guided and driven by the Heritage-Based Education 5.0 philosophy, the university is expanding its chicken and crop production projects to an industrial scale. This endeavour will see the broiler project grow from the current 1 600 birds to 45 000 birds and the layers project from 2 000 birds to 10 000 birds.
“On the cropping side, I am pleased to report that the university has now developed the capacity to delve into commercial crop production following the allocation of 100 hectares of arable land to the institution by the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development.
“With the generous assistance from our parent ministry, the university bought and installed a movable centre pivot together with a water pump and the necessary piping. The pivot is capable of irrigating 20 hectares at a time, and it draws water from the nearby Insiza River. In the interim, the pivot is being powered by a generator while efforts are being made to connect it to the Zesa grid through the Rural Electrification Agency,” said Prof Moyo.
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