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Columbus Mabika Herald Reporter 

Midlands State University (MSU) has confirmed the discontinuation of its Master of Science in Media and Society degree programme.

MSU said students have two options — either to discontinue or switch to the Master of Arts or Master of Science Journalism and Media Studies degree.

 A letter in possession of The Herald from the MSU deputy registrar Academic Affairs Mr Irvine Gumbo addressed to students read: “We have noted your concerns with regard to the Master of Science in Media and Society degree programme,”

“Kindly note that you have two options on this issue, either to discontinue with the Master of Science in Media and Society degree programme or you may switch over to the Master of Arts or Master of Science Journalism and Media Studies degree,”

 The statement further requested students to come up with a position and inform the university about their opinion before tomorrow. 

 Efforts to get a comment from MSU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Irene Muzvidziwa, Dean of Faculty Social Sciences Professor Chipo Hungwe and chairperson of the MSU Media and Society Studies Department Professor Nhamo Mhiripiri were fruitless at the time of going to print.

The development comes after Government last week called on affected students and lecturers to remain calm as the issue was being looked into.

MSU’s Media and Society degrees were suspended a fortnight ago after Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZimChe) started implementing the Minimum Bodies of Knowledge and Skills (MBK/S) that will see some programmes at universities being changed or scrapped. The MSU Media and Society Studies curricula for both the Bachelor of Science Honours degree, the Postgraduate Diploma, and the Master of Science degree have not been included in the MBKs.

Government in a quality assurance standards exercise last year indicated that at least 20 programmes at various universities would be scrapped since they were producing graduates who do not have innovative skills.

The quality assurance standards exercise was done as a requirement for the Zimbabwe National Qualifications Framework under Statutory Instrument (SI) 133 of 2019.

ZIMCHE has come up with the MBK/s that prescribes the basic knowledge and skills that a graduate should possess when they study towards a degree.

MBK/s represent standardisation of the curricula in Higher Education institutions in the country. 

The MBK/s are tools for facilitating equivalence and comparability of qualifications offered by Higher Education institutions in Zimbabwe.