adminNyagura (LN) over his tenure and related issues.
CM: Having assumed your duty as Vice-Chancellor when things were not going on smoothly economically, socially and politically, the general populace would want to know your experience during this difficult time to date.
LN: I do not think the experience would be different from what any other organisation was going through. The two major factors that any other organisation was concerned about have been human resources and the level of commitment of the human resources.
Remember we were subject to very difficult living conditions so that factor number one. The second one is the availability of financial resources because we transitioned from the Zimbabwean dollar that had skyrocketed to large quantities and it was not stable, the value was changing all the time.
One thing which assisted me as someone heading the institution was establishing partners of companies, business and individuals who had the interest of the institution of people at heart.
Things were difficult but I was quite aware of the national needs.
I was aware that the nation needed human resources especially in critical areas like human resources. So you could not afford to shut down the training of medical doctors if you are to prevent the collapse of the health sector.
CM: How has been your experience at the helm of an institution that represents the pride of the Zimbabwe in the education sector, in your various capacities for more than 30 years, you have been there?
LN: It is not a right to be a vice chancellor it is a privilege that one gets. The understanding is that people have expressed a statement that we think you have something worthwhile to contribute.
In accepting the post as Vice-Chancellor way back in 2003 I was very clear in my mind that the position needed someone who have to operate outside the normal box.
You could not provide leadership where you have an exodus of staff, where you have the infrastructure deteriorating and where you had hungry students who wanted to learn.
So one had to balance everything to ensure that you provide quality academic services to the students so that you maintain the standards that had defined UZ internationally and that is the main thrust we were really working on.
While trying to conquer the challenges I had to remember the people who were running away, were the most experienced, for example, the professors and so forth. It was easier for them to be attracted elsewhere.
Our graduates have remained the pride of the institution in the country wherever they go and those who went away during the difficult times, have performed better that those who remained.
CM: In the past UZ was the only institution recognised with higher learning how does it feel to have more universities come up?
LN: A major yardstick to development in any country is its commitment to higher education. If you look at all countries that have developed they have extensively invested in higher education.
Look at the so-called developed countries, they invested their resources to support higher education. Look at the second largest growing economy, China, it committed an unbelievable large sum of money to educate its people.
The idea has been to create a critical mass of well-trained citizens who would be the engine for economic growth. So we want more universities so that we have more Zimbabweans accessing higher education by the way most of these universities were started by UZ.
We started with Chinhoyi, Bindura, Midlands State, Great Zimbabwe, Nust, ZOU – we created all these. There is no way you can try to have a child and decide to kill the child you have to derive joy from.
CM: Years back UZ was revered as a place of high educational excellence something that is said to no longer exist. Do you think the high level of educational excellence is still there and to what extend as compared to the 1990s and early 2000?
LN: In the 90s people relied on historical sources of information, no text books, there was nothing like the concept of electronic resources.
You had no internet all these websites never existed. Access to in information was very limited.
UZ is better than it was in the period in which you referred to.
There are many reasons you could give. First in 1998 we started the only institution in the country to set up a campus wide computer network. Students now have complete textbooks available electronically which never used to be there.
Now, when we started in 2001 we had an internet speed of two megabites per second. Today, as I am speaking we have 190 megabites per second for the internet speed. We are probably better than most organisations in the country in terms of internet speed.
The reason is to enhance access to academic staff and the students.
In other words we are more connected internationally than ever before. We are part of a network of top 26 universities in the world who share research resources and you can’t talk to those collaborations and partnerships in the 90s.
CM: From your experience at the institution which years do you describe as the best during your tenure of office and which were the worst?
LN: The worst period was when we had the economic crunch because you now needed to become a clever beggar to persuade all these people to give you money to pay our staff every week.
You really needed to swallow your pride be guided by pragmatism to let this tuition go on .So those were not easy years.
Staff were leaving, you wake up one morning 10 people are gone. People were not resigning they were absconding and you had to deal with these challenges on a daily basis.
At the same time giving confidence in students that they will be able to finish their degrees in the minimum required time.
The good years are a period where you try to conquer the economic challenges we have a fairly comprehensive and advanced IT infrastructure with a good internet speed.
We have managed to renovate our infrastructure here which is visible, the roads are better, they were full of potholes. We managed to put a water reservoir with a capacity of five million litres.
CM: Can you give us the names of fruits that you have natured that went on to build household names across the country and the world?
LN: We have hundreds who have excelled some are very old graduates of the institution. Let us take my usual star in the legal fraternity, Advocate Thabani Mpofu.
He is only about four years from his graduation but look at the name he has built for himself. Here is an example within the country he has really advanced faster than what most people can even imagine. There are many more like that we have engineers, medical personal who have carried the flag high. We have students who went to the Hague to provide services.
CM: We understand a number of companies and cooperates are partnering with the institution why the sudden interest? Does it mean the economy is performing well?
LN: I think it is partly their response to social responsibility. Every good company which is benefiting from the citizens of the country will have to give back something that is visible. There could never be a better way of paying back to the society than supporting the education of the young men and women of that society.
They realise that the future of those companies will have to depend on well-trained human resources. And human resources have to come from universities.
So people are beginning to realise universities are there for their own good. Econet is with us, Mbada Diamonds is with us, Marange Resources, Mimosa Mining because that is where the future is.
CM: Do you have any strategic plan for the university in the next years, if you have what is the plan, its components and major thrust?
LN: Internationalisation is a process where you try to be an active member in the leading institution of the village.
There are a number of indicators that people look at the number of foreign students you have, the number of foreign academic staff that you have.
The number of courses with an external thrust that you have.
We have been teaching French, Spanish, Chinese, Swahili, Portuguese even Afrikaans. W
e are trying to be a centre of excellence that links different parts of the world from a focal point here at UZ.
That in itself put us at a different link internationally that we are a sensitive institution which have a thrust of producing a global citizen.
Zimbabwe must contribute global citizens, people who appreciated other cultures. That is why our graduates can work anywhere in the world.
We see ourselves as an institution that must be reckoned in the top 10 best universities in Africa.
Online Reporter