UZ celebrates 60 years

Debra Matabvu

Amid all the economic and social crises that the country has experienced to date, the University Of Zimbabwe has defied all the odds and excelled for the past 60 years that it has been in existence.

The institution has remained true to its mandate, producing quality graduates that are sought after world over, research that benefits the society and service to the community.

Now at 60, the institution has not only managed to remain the educational hub locally, regionally, and internationally; it has also managed to be instrumental in giving birth to other tertiary institutions such as Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Chinhoyi University of Technology, (CUT), Bindura University of Science and Education (BUSE), Midlands State University (MSU) and Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) among others.

“We are proud to say that we were able to create new universities for Zimbabweans. We are also concerned with the quality of teachers that teach our children thus all teacher training institutions have since come under our supervision,” Professor Levi Nyagura stressed.

“Recently we wanted teacher training institutions to be supervised by universities within their provinces, but they all refused and offered to remain under our watchful eye.”

Founded in 1955 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the institution‘s first classes began with just 68 students at a temporary site at 147 Baker Avenue, now known as Nelson Mandela Avenue.

Student enrolment ballooned over the years with enrolment reaching 800 students in 1968 with less than 100 students being black.

By then the institution only had four faculties namely the Education, Arts, Science and Social Studies.

Since the university’s initial purpose was to mainly cater for the white settlers, black students were forced to enrol in the faculty of education and arts while the science and law faculties were reserved for white people.

But despite the educational segregation individuals such as Henry Dzinotyiwei, Levi Nyagura, and Teddy Zengeni defied the odds, excelling to global recognition.

At the end of 1973 the first full year students, in the faculties of Arts, Science and Social Studies, graduated.

In March 1974, the first students for a four year honours degree were accepted into the Faculty of Engineering with the first graduates, eleven in number, completing their degrees in 1977.

Even though it was now a fully-fledged university, it remained constrained in terms of the degrees on offer.

After the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the institution was renamed the University of Rhodesia and continued as an independent institution of higher education and research with an enrolment of 2240 students.

In 1981, the first black Principal, Professor Walter Kamba was appointed and in 1982 the Royal Charter was replaced by an Act of Parliament.

The same year, the Faculty of Veterinary Science was established with an intake of 18 students, 11 of whom graduated in 1986.

The Faculty of Commerce and Law was split into two separate and distinctive faculties, namely, the Faculty of Commerce (with two departments, Accountancy and Business Studies) and the Faculty of Law, with three departments, Procedural Law, Private Law and Public Law.

Today that number has sky-rocketed to 77 500 enrolled with an average of 1000 graduates per year. The university, now under the stewardship of Professor Levi Nyagura, has 10 faculties. One of the faculties, formerly known as the Faculty of Medicine, has been transformed into the College of Health Sciences.

The College of Health Sciences in 2010 alone had an enrolment of 1876 undergraduate students training in medicine and surgery, dental surgery, pharmacy, medical laboratory sciences, nursing science, physiotherapy, occupational therapy,health education and promotion and radiography.

Ironically, despite the seemingly high enrolment of students at the UZ’s college of Health Science, the country continues to suffer from a critical shortage of health personnel because soon after completion of their studies, the university graduates are immediately absorbed by the global market.

The institution has, however, not been spared from the economic and political challenges that marred the country during the past decade. This has affected the institution‘s rankings on the continent.

“The university just like any other institution in the country was affected by the economic and political crises that faced the country over the past decade. This affected the overall performance of the university,” lamented Professor Nyagura.

“However let me assure the nation that the university is fast bouncing back and this is evidenced by regional and international universities that are willing to partner with us.”

“We have universities such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Cape Town University, Makekelele University, all saying we will partner with UZ because they have the same standards as ours and this shows how fast we are bouncing back.”

Collaborative research programmes with other universities, regionally and internationally have also helped the University of Zimbabwe maintain its benchmarks through sharing expertise and experiences.

The University of Zimbabwe-University of California San Francisco Collaborative Research Program (UZ-UCSF) recently celebrated 20 years and its aim is to implement high quality science addressing HIV prevention and therapy, to control Zimbabwe’s HIV/AIDS epidemic and contribute to global policy on the epidemic.

Going forward, Professor Nyagura said the institution was going to promote the creation of jobs through research and innovation.

He said the teaching of Chinese and Swahili languages was going to help the exportation of graduates to other countries, a move meant to create employment and bring foreign currency to the country.

This year’s celebrations are going to be held from February to September under the theme “Celebrating our Past, Inspiring our future.”