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NewsDay

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All not well at ZOU

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ALL is reportedly not well at the Zimbabwe Open University where student enrolment has allegedly hit rock bottom with other classes being conducted with less than three students.

ALL is reportedly not well at the Zimbabwe Open University where student enrolment has allegedly hit rock bottom with other classes being conducted with less than three students.

BY OUR CHIEF REPORTER

According to documents shown to NewsDay, enrolment has plummeted from an all-time high of 21 000 students at each given time a few years ago to 6 543 students as at October 9 this year.

The worst affected programmes include the Bachelor of Education, Education in Early Childhood Development and Arts and Media Studies where no new enrolments were made this year, with the institution’s flagship programme — Masters of Business Administration (MBA) — enrolling a paltry 23 new students from an average 400 students recorded at each intake over the past few years.

Student enrolment for commerce degrees has reportedly dropped by over 50% from the last intake, while a single male student from Mashonaland Central has enrolled for a Masters’ Degree in Philosophy.

“Imagine, the taxpayer’s money being used to pay five or so lecturers to teach one student,” one disgruntled official told NewsDay.

University lecturers are paid by the government while universities retain student fees for the running of the institutions. “To make matters worse, almost a third of the students do not pay fees as they are dependents of ZOU workers,” the official added.

ZOU is currently under probe by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) for alleged corruption involving Vice-Chancellor Primrose Kurasha and finance director Perpetual Joy Ndekwere.

Repeated efforts to contact Kurasha over the matter were fruitless although ZOU had promised to respond to questions sent on Wednesday. At the time of going to print last night, the institution had not responded to the enquiries.

However, acting Higher Education minister Ignatius Chombo said he was unaware of the allegations.

“I am not aware of that. I thought Ndekwere was out of the country,” Chombo said.

Ndekwere is a former Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) employee who left the national transporter under a cloud at a time the State was investigating a corruption case against former Zupco chief executive officer and Deputy Information minister Bright Matonga and ex-Zupco chairperson Charles Nherera.

The sources, however, said: “The negative coverage the university got last year is beginning to take its toll. At the moment, Zou is keeping Ndekwere, whose term of office expired in June. The late Higher and Tertiary Education minister Stan Mudenge refused to renew it. Government has since stopped paying her salaries. She is paid by Zou by requisitions from student fees.”

Last year, the university also had some of its degree and diploma programmes suspended by the Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education (Zimche) after they were proved to be sub-standard.

In September, the Public Service Commission refused to recognise a teaching qualification from the university.

Zou, the source added, has also taken a $400 000 loan from a local bank to buy staff vehicles, barely two years after doing the same, while some vehicles were locked up at the Deputy Sherriff’s office ready for auctioning over a labour dispute involving close to $100 000.