06 Aug 2017

Parliamentary committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises chairperson, Mr Samson Guma has implored the BIUST management to be innovative and move away from government funding.

Mr Guma, who was on a tour to BIUST together with other members of his committee recently, said waiting for government funding would make the university fail on its mandate.

He said the university should always strive to meet the international standards by adopting a culture of self-sufficiency, adding that the best universities were self-sufficient and did not rely solely on their governments for funding.

“If you are going to wait for the government to give you funding you will not see your vision,” he said.

The Tati East legislator implored the BIUST management to be innovative and come up with projects that would not only benefit the country but also generate income for the university.

“The best thinkers and intellectuals are here therefore you should not be having a liquidity issue at all.”

Furthermore, he said the government was looking up to BIUST to transform the country economy into knowledge based economy.

He said in 2008 many world economies were hit hard by the global economic recession which saw the country's mineral revenue being eroded.

He said government had to come up with ways to get out of the recession thus research and development were identified as key areas that could be exploited to transform the economy from resource based to knowledge based economy.

Therefore, he sais BIUST should lead the race by being innovative to enable the country to achieve its national vision of 2036.

He said BIUST has a capable knowledgeable human resource which can lead this country in terms of research and innovation.

He therefore urged BIUST management to always take their lecturers on board and empower them to carry out researches that can bring a positive change in the lives of the people.

Mr Guma said researches carried out should bring about tangible products and services that can change the lives of the people for the better.

He said though his committee's main interest is on the financial, they wanted to familiarise themselves with BIUST's operations as well as the environment they are working in, adding that it is important to understand the environment in which people are working in.

He added that the core role of parliament is legislation but parliament has since gone further than that, adding that parliament has moved away from being critical and finding faults to finding solutions.

“We are now not judged by the number of questions we have brought to parliament but by positive changes we have made on the ground,” he said.

He said therefore coming to BIUST was not meant to find faults but to come up with solutions that could take this country to greater heights, adding “we are all part of the government.”

For his part the Vice Chancellor of BIUST Prof. Otlogetswe Totolo decried inadequate research support funding calling on the government to increase funding in the area of research.

He said countries that are technologically advanced invest heavily on research and technology and spend three to four per cent of their budget on research development.Contrary to that he said this country only spends less than one per cent of the budget on research, adding that this is very little to enable the university to carry out intensive research as intended.

He said increasing research funding will enable the university to carry out its mandate of transforming the economy of this country to a knowledge based economy.

For his part, MP for Gabane/Mmankgodi Maj. Gen. Pius Mokgware raised concern over misalignment of BIUST's strategic plan and their budget.

Maj. Gen. Mokgware also raised concern over developments carried out on campus saying that it is disappointing to see buildings being built by brick and mortar in a university that should be innovative.

He said there is no need for the university to outsource some of the services when it has a pool of intellectuals who should give guidance on the type of buildings that should be developed.

BIUST's director of Physical Planning and Campus Facilities, Mr Mpho Mphengula added that the university has formulated its campus master plan which  encompasses elements of green technology and harvesting of solar energy.

He said unfortunately the first phase of the university was developed without taking these elements into consideration hence going further the university will adopt innovative ways as formulated in the master plan. ENDS