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Prof Murwira

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
Universities have been urged to continuously review their curriculum to remain relevant, while maintaining their core mandate to produce well-rounded innovative and strategic academics who will contribute meaningfully to the country’s growth trajectory.

Speaking at a tour of Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences (MSUAS) in Mutare last week, Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira said some institutions of higher learning had lost sight of their goals.

“In our curriculum design, we must always have an end in sight,” he said. “We need to find out whether the curriculum we are using is still relevant or has to be looked at again and again. When people talk of an institution’s standards, they usually mean something that was there long back.

“But the world has moved on and we have to keep on improving standards and setting up new ones. We cannot be victims of yellow pages. We want to move forward. Standards are not a static thing, they are improved from time to time.”

Prof Murwira said Government had given institutions of higher learning academic freedom to make decisions that would ensure that the quality of academics being churned out was not compromised. He promised that Government would not interfere with the responsibilities of senate at higher learning institutions to ensure that standards remained high.

“Senate is responsible for assuring quality in your degrees. We cannot say a degree used to be three years, so it has to stay that way. If you feel there is need for the programme to be four years and have valid reasons, then let it be four years. Your senate determines your freedom. You determine how you want to do things,” said Prof Murwira.

Prof Murwira urged MSUAS to stick to its mandate of offering applied sciences, while ensuring that its programmes remained relevant.

“We always ask when we are designing our programming, what is the end objective?” he said. “For you, its minerals, forestry and related sciences. Our aim is grand. We must have a grand strategy of applied sciences in Zimbabwe, which is bigger than self-preservation among academics where people keep teaching the same things over a long period of time even if they are not relevant anymore.

“I don’t want MSUAS to have confusion. The programme offered here is applied science. They can be accompanied by minor programmes that support the bigger picture. But 20 years later if there is confusion, you will hear that the biggest programme is poetry and drama. It then means we did not have a grand strategy and an end in sight.”

Prof Murwira said Government would not agree to the idea that teachers’ colleges, polytechnics and industrial training centres should all be universities. He said each institution should remain as it is so that they produce students who are hands-on and can adapt to any work environment.