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NewsDay

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Govt mulls 3 more varsities

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GOVERNMENT has announced plans to launch three new State universities.

GOVERNMENT has announced plans to launch three new State universities, namely Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Pan African University for Minerals and the National Defence College being converted into a specialist university catering for the Southern African region.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

Chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio committee on Higher and Tertiary Education, Chinhoyi MP Peter Mataruse (MDC-T), told the House yesterday that the public was being consulted to enable crafting of the Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Bill.

Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) chief executive officer Proffessor Emmanuel Ngara said if the Bill was passed, the Marondera University of Agriculture, Science and Technology would start operating next year.

“The university will focus on science and technology, agricultural sciences, research and scholarship,” Ngara said.

“The courses that will be offered must be related to its own mandate of science and agriculture and we will make sure that we do not digress from that,” he said.

Recently, Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development deputy minister Godfrey Gandawa bemoaned that most specialised universities were digressing from their core business and in the process producing half-baked graduates.

But, Ngara said ZIMCHE would ensure these universities were kept in check.

“Otherwise government policy is that we have a university in each province. Currently, only three provinces — Mashonaland East, Manicaland and Matabeleland South — do not have State universities. When these three are in place we believe the country will have enough universities,” Ngara said.