Chronicle EditorRutendo Rori Marondera Correspondent
Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (MUAST), which all along was being hosted by University of Zimbabwe, is now a stand-alone institution.
The university council, which is led by Dr Herbert Murerwa, was put in place in July this year.
The campus is currently situated at Dozmey Farm about 30km from Marondera town.
In a speech read on his behalf by one of the board members, Mr Richard Mavhunga, during a clean-up campaign in Marondera recently, Dr Murerwa said they were planning to open a new campus in Marondera town in February next year.
“I am happy to announce that starting February 2018, 10 of the ZIMCHE-accredited programmes will be offered to new cohorts of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programme.
These programmes will be available at a new campus we are opening here in Marondera town at CSC, to cater for the wider community of Mashonaland East Province,” said Dr Murerwa.
He also expressed gratitude to the University of Zimbabwe for nurturing MUAST.
“The university has been operating as an independent institution since August this year. We are grateful to the University of Zimbabwe for incubating MUAST which started as a university college in 2013, when we started offering honours degree in Agriculture with option in Crop Science and Animal Science.
UZ and the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF) used their funds to establish the current infrastructure at our campus at Dozmery farm. We are also grateful to UZ for allowing us to continue using their ZIMCHE accredited programmes,” he said.
Dr Murerwa also said the university needs support from the nation in order to accomplish the learning institution’s goals.
“I am calling upon people of Mashonaland East and beyond to support this new university. Our vision is to become a leading institution of Higher and learning responsible development and incubation of green technologies.”
Enrolment will start from February next year and the university will be offering agriculture related programmes.
Government also approved other proposed universities in the province which are the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) and the Southern Africa Methodist University (SAMU).
CPCA is expected to construct its university at Rufaro Longlands Farm in Marondera while SAMU will be based at Waddilove farm.
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