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Mashonaland Central Bureau

Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Minister Professor Amon Murwira has urged universities and tertiary institutions to become more relevant as providers of knowledge required to solve societal problems and economic challenges.

Speaking at the 17th Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) graduation ceremony last Friday, Prof Murwira said there has been a disconnection between knowledge gap in the higher and tertiary education system and the local environment.

“Thank you your Excellency for your clear vision through your reconfiguration of the higher and tertiary education system to implement creative science technology which result in the production of goods and services in an environment that we see rather than the environment that we imagine,” he said.

“Your emphasis on knowledge that produces goods and services will ensure that universities become more relevant as a provider of knowledge required to solve societal problems and economic challenges, in other words education should grow industries not vice-versa.

“Your Excellency, you added two more missions in addition to the traditional teaching research and community service, you have added innovation and industrialisation to these traditional three so that we end up with goods and services.”

Also speaking at the same occasion, BUSE Vice-Chancellor Professor Eddie Mwenje said universities would continue playing the strategic role of providing human capital development by bridging the key gap that would identify with 2018 national skills policy report.

He said in the current academic year, BUSE had added 12 new degree programmes which were important in producing the critical human capital to stimulate industrialisation and modernisation for the economy and the achievements of the vision of an upper middle class economy by 2030.

Prof Mwenje said as universities and academia they were convinced they should be the major drivers of a sustainable industrialisation and modernisation strategy of the economy.

He said in 2018 BUSE established a centre for food security and climate change and was expected to grow into a centre of excellence to support the country in providing to agricultural science informed initiatives that sustainably improves productivity through efficient use of input and development of production systems that are more resilient to risk, shock and long term climate change variability.

Prof Mwenje said he was happy to report on the progress on the commercialisation of the sustainable development of the broiler chicken feed from the Moringa tree for the partial substitution of soya cake and tests conducted indicate that there was zero mortality.