22 Sep 2020

University of Botswana (UB) continues to experience drastic decline in the number of students who enroll with the institution annually. 

Briefing the UB wing, Okavango Research Institute (ORI) staff members in Maun about the new UB strategy on September 21, UB vice chancellor, Professor David Norris said humanities and education faculties were some of the faculties that experienced decline in students yearly.

“Humanities enrolment has drastically dropped from around 2 000 students to 200 students this year,” he said.

The new UB strategy of 2020/21 to 2028/29, he said aimed to ensure the university produced quality well- rounded graduates, created quality environment for research and innovation as well as build employee capabilities to enhance staff accomplishment.

He said with the old strategy, the university had failed to attain its goals and failed to be responsive to world changes.

“With the new strategy the university will provide relevant and high quality programmes, intensive research performance, improve student experience and enhance human resources for excellent delivery,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prof. Norris officially opened porta cabins that were donated by UB to ORI to serve as offices for ORI staff.

ORI director, Professor Joseph Mbaiwa said the porta cabins were a welcome development since the institution experienced shortage of office space.

He however said the institution still required extra offices as some staff members shared office spaces.

Prof. Mbaiwa further said ORI was developing its own strategic goals to be aligned to the new UB strategy and thus advised staff members to devise operational and annual plans.

He also indicated that they were in the process of developing a management plan aimed to explore ways to generate funds for ORI. 

Prof Mbaiwa further said ORI experienced challenges as the institution also experienced reduction in research and did not register any student last year. Ends