Harare — President Mugabe yesterday capped 393 Chinhoyi University of Technology graduates who majored in various degree studies.

After capping the graduates, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces donated 125 computers to the university and several Mashonaland West secondary schools.

Speaking at CUT's fifth graduation ceremony, Vice Chancellor Professor David Simbi paid tribute to the Government for providing funds for staff salaries and operational grants that made it possible for students to complete their studies.

He told President Mugabe that they were developing synergies with local and regional universities for staff exchange programmes to offset the impact of brain drain.

"With the human capital outflow continuing unabated, the increased use of teaching assistants to alleviate the situation is but a temporary measure as this group of employees requires extensive development and is itself highly mobile," he said.

Prof Simbi said the university had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Zambia's Copperbelt University to enhance co-operation by facilitating student and staff exchanges in what he called "brain circulation".

The exchanges are also being implemented with the Bindura University of Science Education, the National University of Science and Technology, Midlands State University and the University of Zimbabwe.

"The arrangement is meant to provide for the sharing of teaching materials, facilitate inter-institution teaching and encourage collaborative research activities," he said.

Prof Simbi said CUT had a regional collaborative research programme with the University of Cape Town's Centre for Materials Engineering focusing on the development of platinum alloy catalysts using nanotechnology.

"These will be used in hydrogen fuel cell development research activities to further facilitate, through value addition, the exploitation of our platinum group metal mineral resource," he said.

The National Research Foundation of South Africa is funding the project that will see one CUT member of staff from the Department of Fuels and Energy Engineering pursuing a PhD.

He said enrolment continued to grow but the growth was not matched by infrastructure development and this threatened to compromise the quality of education.

He urged Government to review incentives and salaries for staff to safeguard the quality of education.

Eighty-six students - including former Media, Information and Publicity Deputy Minister Bright Matonga - graduated with Master of Science degrees in Strategic Management while 52 were conferred with Bachelor of Technology Honours in International Marketing degrees.

Others were capped in Hospitality and Tourism, Creative Art and Design, and Nursing Education among others.

President Mugabe donated 25 computers and accessories to CUT and 10 computers each to St Michaels, Mukakatanwa, Mshowe, Matoranjera, Nafombe Urimagonde, Mashayamombe, Chikowore, Chemukute, Martin Spur and Kuwadzana secondary schools.

This was done under the President's schools computerisation programme that has benefited learning institutions across the country.

Acting Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Dr Ignatius Chombo, academics and senior Government attended the graduation.