Republic of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe at graduation ceremony on October 5, 2012. The president had recently returned from delivering a major address at the UN General Assembly., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
President caps 674 at Chinhoi university
Saturday, 06 October 2012 00:00
Zimbabwe Herald
From Walter Nyamukondiwa in CHINHOYI
President Mugabe yesterday conferred degrees on 674 Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) students at the university’s 8th graduation ceremony.
The graduates excelled in various fields, including hospitality and tourism, engineering sciences and technology, agricultural sciences and technology and art and design.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, CUT pro-vice chancellor Dr Pardon Kuipa said the country’s researchers should emulate those from countries such as China, Japan and South Korea by transferring technologies and adapting them to the local environment.
Dr Kuipa said the university was implementing some of the recommendations made by President Mugabe at the Research and Intellectual Expo 2012.
The recommendations included re-aligning the university’s curricula and programmes so that they address human resource challenges in agriculture and mining sectors.
“The new paradigm should enhance and strengthen our indigenous knowledge, music and folklore while also fine-tuning graduates to self-employ,” he said.
Dr Kuipa assured President Mugabe that great strides had been made in fulfilling some of the recommendations.
“We have started an undergraduate degree programme in Animal Production and Technology whose main thrust is the development of animal reproductive health technology,” he said.
“We have assembled a team of researchers to tackle the water hyacinth weed that is flourishing in our waterways and dams, making abstraction of water for agricultural and domestic use problematic.”
Dr Kuipa said that CUT had entered into partnership with other universities and stakeholders to strengthen research.
The university has established relations with University of Buffalo’s Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, the New York State Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences to launch the Zimbabwe International Nanotechnology Centre in conjunction with the University of Zimbabwe.
Dr Kuipa said the university was engaged in talks with the Zim-China Wanjin Company to set up an agriculture technology centre at the Chinhoyi University Farm.
CUT council chairperson Dr Robson Mafoti said provision of higher education was a multi-faceted and integral process that should be continuously reviewed to adapt to the changing operating environment.
He described the late Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Dr Stan Mudenge as a solid educationist who would be missed in the education sector.
The university has grown from having 18 PhD holders with four professors as lecturers to having 29 PhD holders and six professors.
A minute of silence was observed in honour of Dr Stan Mudenge who died in Masvingo on Thursday.
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