THE 6th World Women University Conference ended on a high note yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe urging women to acquire tertiary education as a source for informed participation in national processes. The conference, hosted by the Women's University in Africa in Harare, brought together educationists and university vice-chancellors from more than 23 countries.

The two-day conference was aimed at strengthening university partnerships for the empowerment of women worldwide.

DPM Khupe said a robust and effective higher education system was the only mechanism that could take women to greater heights.

"Women should have access to higher learning and use knowledge as a means to reclaim their basic rights," she said. "It is a basic fundamental right for every woman and young girls to access higher education as a means to break the cycle of poverty, dependency and diseases."

She said with education, women would be confident to participate in decision-making bodies. "Unless until we have proper representation of women by women in decision making bodies such as the executive, Parliament and the judiciary, we remain a very long way from fully addressing gender disparity and fostering equity in our nations," DPM Khupe said.