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Botswana: Issues in Education
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
COLUMN
14 April 2008
Posted to the web 15 April 2008
D. Molefe
Gaborone
The development of the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) is beginning to move forward at a faster pace than experienced since the Task Force began planning for a second university in Botswana in 2003.
A significant initiative is that the university is kick starting with a Dean for Research and Graduate Studies programmes along with three other founding Deans of Science, Engineering and Business and Finance. The vision that a university can begin promoting research and graduate studies at the same time as it starts undergraduate teaching in applied disciplines is extremely significant. The development of research and masters and doctoral degrees will make BIUST a more attractive place for academics from Botswana and different countries in the world to work in. The implications of this move should not be underestimated.
It took the University of Botswana 32 years (from the opening of UBBS in 1964) before it began to fully support graduate studies. Today around seven percent of its enrolment of 15,000 students are registered for masters and doctorates. The objective of BIUST from the start is to build towards 20 percent of its students in graduate studies.
It is anticipated that these graduate students will help to establish a culture of research and development that will contribute to a strong university ethos of supporting investigation and learning. To be recognised as an international university, this initiative is essential from the start.
BIUST has already demonstrated its commitment to graduate studies long before it has officially opened. Already 23 graduate students are enrolled in different programmes in a number of Canadian universities and four more at universities in the United States. In 2008 another 55 will be recruited to be sponsored for post-graduate studies in India, Australia and the UK to meet the start-up requirements for some of the staff when BIUST opens in March 2010.The Ministry of Education and Skill Development through the Department of Student Placement and Welfare have been squarely behind this initiative.
The support for graduate studies now and the inclusion of graduate studies from the beginning are part of BIUST's vision for the future and its strategic concepts. BIUST sees itself as one of the key drivers in the process of changing Botswana from a "resource-based to a knowledge-based economy". To be an international university means to adopt a worldview. Students, staff, placements, research, links with industry and public-private partnerships can all be achieved on a global basis with the overall objective of "enhancing life through science and technology".
In terms of planning, focus and structural arrangement, BIUST is taking a good direction. It will begin with a phased model of growth, starting with only a few programmes at the undergraduate and graduate levels and then building up as intakes and the number of programmes expand each year. There will also be a system of graduate student assistantships, both in research and teaching. This will allow graduate students to work and earn while they study and to contribute to the quality of the teaching of the undergraduates. Experience elsewhere demonstrates that some of the best university teachers are those who are active graduate students doing their own research and development.
To make BIUST attractive both to students and staff in the competitive environment that now exists in Botswana BIUST will develop crosscutting, integrated, research centres focusing on problem solving for Botswana and the region. These research centres would help ensure that interdisciplinary approaches are sustained. They could also facilitate undergraduate project-based approaches.
It is anticipated that at least a quarter of the student body will be recruited from outside Botswana, with the majority of these coming from SADC countries and others from around the world. The current projection for student enrolments is that BIUST will reach 10,000 students by 2019. If goals are adhered to, by 2019 BIUST will have enrolled 2,000 masters and doctoral students in its programmes.
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The establishment of research and graduate studies from the start should help to transform BIUST into a genuine "international" university, instead of an institution that might be labelled yet another "Bantustan" college. There are a number of other strategies that will need to be followed to achieve the international standards that BIUST aspires towards.
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| Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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