17 Dec 2025

Minister of Higher Education has appointed a new University of Botswana Council, comprising nine experts drawn from various disciplines.

The university has been operating for nine months without a council.

The new council comprising five appointed members, two nominees proposed by the university and two re-appointments are Morupule Coal Mine chief executive officer, Mr Edwin Elias, UB lecturer Dr Shabani Ndzinge, IDM Country director, Dr Theophilus Mooko, UB lecturer, Dr Audrey Masizana, lawyers, Messrs Onalethata Kambai and Tebatso Seabueng, Dr Chilindi Maloiso, who is UB director of Health Science, Messrs John Phatshwe and John Mpoloka from the Ministry of Tertiary Education.

Addressing the council in Gaborone on Tuesday, Mr Prince Maele implored council members to reposition UB beyond traditional teaching and research, saying universities must now drive innovation and economic relevance.

Also, he cautioned council members against involvement in operational matters.
Instead, he urged them to focus on strategic oversight, noting that substantial work remained outstanding following the nine-month hiatus.

He further challenged the council to conclude the restructuring exercise, which had taken five years to conclude.
Already, he said he had met with UB Vice Chancellor, Prof. David Norris for progress update on the exercise with the new deadline set for March 31, 2026.

In addition, the minister tasked the council chairperson, Dr Daniel Tau with expediting the onboarding process to enable the council to begin work immediately, adding that additional meetings would be required to address compliance backlogs.

Reflecting on the country’s prevailing economic challenges, which contributed to UB’s prolonged period without a council, the minister urged the university to transform into a fourth-generation institution by developing a sustainable third income stream.

“I say this to all public universities BUAN, BOU, BIUST and UB they must have a third income stream. For universities, this is very easy,” he said.

In his remarks, Dr Tau acknowledged that the absence of a council created a governance vacuum, resulting in the failure to execute key statutory responsibilities. These included the declaration of financial statements and accounts, normally undertaken between April and June as well as the submission of the annual report due in September.

Expressing concern, Dr Tau said the university had fallen behind peer institutions despite its mandate to be exemplary in governance.

Meanwhile, Professor David Norris said the university had fallen short of expectations along the research and innovation value chain, failing to fully deliver on the objectives of its 2017-2018 strategy.

He attributed this partly to the institution’s cost structure, revealing that 92 per cent of the university’s budget was spent on wages, leaving limited resources for core academic and innovation activities.Anchored on research and innovation, Prof. Norris said the university had adopted a new strategic direction aimed at translating research outputs into marketable products and services.

He noted that the existing organisational structure did not support this vision, prompting a comprehensive restructuring exercise to align the institution with its strategic priorities.

“The process involved reviewing the organisational structure, job profiles and performance systems to ensure timely and effective delivery of our mandate. This also resulted in the reconfiguration of faculties,” he said.

As part of the restructuring, he said five faculties were reorganised to promote multidisciplinary research and collaboration. ENDS