11 Apr 2018

For any university in the world to play a critical role and remain relevant in society, it has to engage with its stakeholders.

University of Botswana Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris said this during a stakeholder engagement session in Francistown on Tuesday.

He highlighted that for any country to advance, economic prosperity usually comes as a result of collaboration between academia, business and society.

Prof Norris also said that the University of Botswana was a great institution whose history was tied to the country in many ways.

“This university has played a key role in human capital development, decision-making and in influencing public policy.

Though we used to be active in this, I have to admit that in the recent past we have regressed,” he said.

On other issues, he explained that as much as Batswana contributed to the building of the university, the institution should serve the nation through solving problems.

Collaboration with the industry, Prof Norris observed, was critical for UB as it undertakes the process of reinventing higher education.

Consequently, he added that UB wants to be competitive and have a global footprint.

Furthermore, he said that they had for a long time restricted their attention within the confines of Botswana’s borders.

The university, he explained, currently has around 2 000 employees, 900 of which are academic staff.

On other issues, he asserted that they were reviewing their programmes so that they could meet the needs of the current market demands.

Currently, he noted that they had new departments such as the School of Engineering and Technology and the School of Medicine.

Prof Norris explained that in the past UB had been focused on undergraduate studies, but now wants to develop as a research-intensive university focused on graduate studies and knowledge production.

The School of Medicine, he added, is now producing specialists and the university is getting good feedback from the industry.

If things go well, Prof Norris said that the University of Botswana wants to develop a fully-fledged campus in Francistown.

He also said UB has developed linkages with premier universities around the world.

In terms of facilities, he highlighted that the university had some of the best in the world including the Indoor Sports Centre.

The University of Botswana, he added, had staff and students from around the world.

“We need more residences within the university and we call upon the private sector to enter into public private partnerships with UB to develop these,” he asserted.

Furthermore, Prof Norris explained that UB wants to collaborate with industry to design curricula for students so as to meet the market needs.

One of the areas they intend to focus on, he added, was collaborative research projects with communities as a way of producing research that solve societal problems.

Research, he added, should be informed by developmental challenges and said that the days when professors did research on their own without a focus on society were coming to an end.

On the issue of student engagement in the reinventing of programmes, he mentioned that they continued to use surveys to get feedback from students as major stakeholders in their programmes.

The Vice Chancellor also concurred with the City Mayor, Ms Sylvia Muzila, who had expressed a concern about some of the university’s buildings in the city, which were dilapidated and had become an eyesore.

Ms Muzila also implored the university to partner with the council in the realisation of the city’s Vision 2022.

For his part, the Acting Director of the Centre for Continuing Education, Professor Richard Tabulawa explained that UB was an integral part of Francistown.

He mentioned that this was the first engagement by the city leadership, business and the Vice Chancellor, noting that such signalled a shift in approach on how the university would work with communities going forward.

A majority of stakeholders applauded the university for the engagement, noting that a lot of indigenous knowledge was going to waste.

They also argued that if the university collaborated with communities, a lot of problems afflicting the nation could be resolved. Ends