University of Zimbabwe

Coordinates: 17°47′02″S 31°03′11″E / 17.784°S 31.053°E / -17.784; 31.053
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University of Zimbabwe
Vice-Chancellor
Paul Mapfumo
Academic staff
140 professors,[2] 545 lecturers, 155 teaching and research assistants (2018)[3]
Undergraduates17,718
Postgraduates2,681
Location
Harare
,
Zimbabwe
CampusSuburban
Websitewww.uz.ac.zw

The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University of Rhodesia, and adopted its present name upon Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. UZ is the oldest university in Zimbabwe.

The university has eleven faculties (with faculties of Agriculture Environment and Food Systems, Arts and Humanities, Business Management Sciences and Economics, Computer Engineering Informatics and Communications, Education, Engineering and Built Environment, Law, Science, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Veterinary Sciences and Medicine and Health Sciences) offering a wide variety of degree programmes and many specialist research centres and institutes. The university is accredited through the

Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education. English is the language of instruction. The university has faced criticism for awarding fraudulent degrees to members of the Robert Mugabe regime, most notably First Lady Grace Mugabe.[4][5][6][7]

History

Background

Council room of the University of Zimbabwe. Portraits of former Vice-Chancellors from left to right: Robert Craig, Leonard Lewis, Walter Kamba and Gordon Chavunduka.

In 1945, Manfred Hodson (after whom a

Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly adopted a motion proposed by Hodson for the establishment of a university college to serve the needs of Southern Rhodesia and neighbouring territories. The Governor of Southern Rhodesia established the Rhodesia University Foundation Fund in 1947. The Legislative Assembly accepted an offer of land in Mount Pleasant from the City of Salisbury (now Harare) for the construction of the campus in 1948. Four years later a bill was enacted for the incorporation and constitution of the university. First classes began for some 68 students on a temporary site at 147 Baker Avenue (now Nelson Mandela Avenue).[9] Independent of the initiatives of Hodson and the Legislative Assembly, the Central African Council's Commission on Higher Education, led by Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders (after whom another residence is now named), recommended the establishment of a university college to serve the newly established Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, with its first preference being to integrate with the Southern Rhodesian initiative.[8]

Establishment

Construction began on the Mount Pleasant site, funded by grants from both the

Royal Charter. The college was admitted to the privilege of Special Relation with the University of London the following year, and in 1957 all activities were transferred to the Mount Pleasant campus. The following year the college was granted pieces of land upon which the college farm and the Lake Kariba Research Station were constructed.[8] In 1963 the Medical School opened and was affiliated to the University of Birmingham. After the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the University College continued as an independent institution of higher education and research, open to all races.[9]
In 1970 a phased termination of the associations with the Universities of London and Birmingham began.

Post independence

Following Zimbabwe's independence after the Rhodesian Bush War, the university was renamed University of Zimbabwe in 1980. In 1981, the first black principal, Walter Kamba, was appointed[3][10] and in 1982 the royal charter was replaced by an act of Parliament.[1] Student numbers rose from 1,000 in 1980 to 2,000 by 1985.[11] In December 1998, the university hosted the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC).[12] The Assembly, the WCC's chief governing body, met in the Great Hall on the UZ campus.[12]

On 5 October 1989, thousands of students at the university gathered to protest the arrests of two student leaders.[13] Hundreds of riot police arrived, clashing with the protestors, several of whom were injured and more than 50 of whom were arrested and faced up to five years in prison.[13] By noon that day, all of the university's 8,000 students were ordered to leave campus, and riot police arrived, blocking entrances to campus and preventing students from entering.[13]

The University of Zimbabwe Act was controversially amended in 1990, giving the government more powers and, according to many faculty, students and observers, attacking academic freedom.[14][15] The late 1980s and most of the 1990s saw a rise in student protest,[16][17][18] resulting in several closures[19] and mass expulsions.[20] Despite the ongoing tensions, the university continued to grow and the student population had reached 8,000 by 1995[11] and 10,139 by 2001.[9] As the 2000s began, the university struggled to meet lecturers' and professors' expectations on salary levels, leading to numerous strikes.[21] Many donors, including the Government of Sweden, which had previously been a major financer of UZ, cut or cancelled their aid.[22] As the economic crisis grew in Zimbabwe, UZ began to fail to recruit lecturers and professors to fill vacancies.[23] By 2007, the shortage of staff was preventing the teaching and examination of some programmes.[24] Problems with water and electricity supply, as well as maintenance of infrastructure became critical by the late 2000s.[24] The decline of UZ culminated in the university's failure to re-open for the 2008–2009 academic year.[25] The university briefly opened in early 2009, but no classes were held due to strike action by lecturers.[26] The institution was closed again in late February, following demonstrations by students against new, hard currency fees.[27]

Controversy over fraudulent degrees

The university has faced criticism for awarding a fraudulent degree to a member of the

Mugabe regime; in 2014, Grace Mugabe was given a doctorate in sociology, only two months after being registered on the programme, although a dissertation does not exist in the university archives.[5][6][7][28][29] On 20 November 2017, the University of Zimbabwe students boycotted writing exams citing that the former first lady Grace Mugabe's controversial PhD should be revoked. They also protested and declared that they would not write examinations until Robert Mugabe resigned. The 93 year old leader and then chancellor of the university resigned the following afternoon on 21 November 2017 as head of state and government. Many claimed that the University of Zimbabwe's students will go down in history as those who gave the Mugabe regime the 'final push' of his 37-year reign as Zimbabwe's leader.[30]

Campus

Social gathering on the edge of the university College Green

The main campus of the University of Zimbabwe is located in the affluent Mount Pleasant suburb in northern Harare. The campus spans 299 hectares (740 acres)[31] in the southern part of Mount Pleasant, forming the main portion of a special section of land reserved for educational purposes located between Mount Pleasant Drive, Upper East Road, Churchill Avenue, and Teviotdale Road. Other institutions located within this zone include the Ministry of Education Audio-Visual Centre, Mount Pleasant School, and the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council headquarters.[32] There are 171 buildings on the main campus, including academic facilities, all but two of the student residence halls, and much of the staff housing. The main campus also features sporting facilities and the College Green, a grassy space located near the centre of campus close to the academic buildings that is a popular site for social events. Roughly a third of the campus is a seasonal wetland that is unsuitable for construction and remains undeveloped.[33]

In addition to the Mount Pleasant campus, the university has facilities in several different locations throughout Zimbabwe. In Harare alone, UZ has 46 buildings located outside the Mount Pleasant campus.[31] The university's main satellite campus, located at the Parirenyatwa Hospital in central Harare, houses the College of Health Sciences.[32] Besides the medical school, additional university properties within Harare include blocks of flats for staff and student housing in The Avenues, Avondale, and Mount Pleasant. Outside Harare, UZ has facilities in Bulawayo, Kariba, and Teviotdale.[31] The university operates the Lake Kariba Research Station, located in the Nyamhunga suburb of Kariba, Mashonaland West,[34] as well as the University of Zimbabwe Farm, also known as Thornpark Estate, which lies approximately 8 kilometers away from the Mount Pleasant campus, on Mazowe Road in Teviotdale, Mazowe District, Mashonaland Central.[31][35] The farm, 1,636 hectares (4,040 acres) in size,[31] is used by the UZ Faculty of Agriculture for teaching and research. Several of Zimbabwe's newer universities began as colleges and satellite campuses of UZ, such as Bindura University of Science Education, Chinhoyi University of Technology, and Zimbabwe Open University.[36]

Academics

Undergraduate

field school in Mazowe District, Bachelor of Science
programme, University of Zimbabwe.

The basic format of undergraduate learning at UZ is

examinations
are administered.

The degree programmes follow the Course Unit model, and in many programmes it is possible for students to select some of the courses from a range of options. Honours degrees have a compulsory project course that the students must complete individually, with different projects carried out by each student.[37]

The undergraduate programmes offered lead to

veterinary anatomy, veterinary physiology and veterinary biochemistry.[38][39]

Postgraduate

Postgraduate water resources students in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Zimbabwe, with their professors and lecturers.

The University of Zimbabwe offers postgraduate honours degrees, two types of master's degree and doctoral degrees. Postgraduate honours programmes, also known as special honours programmes last are for one-year duration and incorporate coursework, examinations and a compulsory project module. Master's degrees by coursework and project are designated M.A. or MSc and are of one to two years duration. They incorporate coursework and project modules. Master's degrees by research thesis only are designated M.Phil. and require a minimum of two years study. The doctoral programme, D.Phil., is by research thesis only. Students who are carrying out an M.Phil. study, but have not yet submitted their thesis, may apply to their faculty to upgrade their study to the D.Phil. programme.[40]

Suspension of programmes

Due to the heavy staff vacancies that UZ began suffering from in the 2000s, many programmes and specialisations have been suspended.[24]

Rankings

Although UZ has not generally featured in major international rankings such as the

University of Dar-es-Salaam, and number 3,549 out of 9,760 accredited universities in the world.[41] By 2008, UZ had slid to number 17 in Africa and number 4,001 globally.[42] In 2010, according to University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP), University of Zimbabwe is the best university in Zimbabwe and 1340th university in the world.[43]

Administration and organisation

Central governance

See also: List of principals of the University of Zimbabwe

The titular head of the university is the

Pro–Vice-Chancellors, appointed by the University Council with the approval of the Minister of Higher Education Innovation Science and Technology Development.[1]

The academic authority of the university is vested in the

Senate, comprising the university's chief officers, the deans of faculties, all full professors, the chairmen of departments and staff and student representatives. The university is divided into faculties, managed by an executive dean and governed by a Faculty Board comprising all professors and lecturers.[1]

Faculties

There are twelve academic faculties:

Faculty Departments Institutes Centres
Agriculture Environment And Food Systems
Agricultural Engineering
Arts
And Humanities
Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy
Theatre arts
African languages
research institute
Confucius Institute
Communication Skills Centre
Centre for Defence Studies
Medicine and Health Sciences Medical Laboratory Sciences

School of Pharmacy

 Institute of Continuing Health Education
Business Management Sciences and Economics
Business Studies

Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Studies

Graduate School of Management
Computer Engineering Informatics and Communications Analytics and Informatics

Computer Engineering

Electronics and telecommunications

Computer Technology Training Development

Education
Adult Education
Curriculum and Arts Education

Educational Administration

Technical Education
Human Resources
Research Centre
Engineering and Built Environment
Mining Engineering
 Centre for Continuing Engineering Education
Law Constitutional law
Private law
Procedural law
Public law 		Commercial law Institute
Women's Law Institute of Southern Africa
Science
Family Sciences
Geology
Mathematics
Physics

Electronics and Telecommunication Technology

Environmental Science

 Institute of Mining Research Mineral Resources Centre
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Urban Planning
Sociology
 Centre for Applied
Social Studies
Centre for Population Studies
Veterinary Science
 Preclinical Veterinary Science
Clinical Veterinary Science
Paraclinical Veterinary Science

Colleges

The university used to have one college, the College of Health Sciences which is now called the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. However, many of Zimbabwe's public universities started as colleges of the University of Zimbabwe:

Former college of the University of Zimbabwe Current University
Bindura University College for Science Education Bindura University of Science Education
Chinhoyi University College Chinhoyi University of Technology
University College of Distance Education[36] Zimbabwe Open University
Faculty of Engineering graduation ceremony, University of Zimbabwe, August 2005.

Trans-disciplinary institutes

The university has two trans-disciplinary research institutes: the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Institute of Environmental Studies (IES).

Affiliated institutions

There are numerous education institutions affiliated to the University of Zimbabwe, including teacher training colleges[1] and the School of Social Work.

Academic year

The academic year runs from August to June, with graduation normally in September. As from February 2016, the university introduced a second intake, with an academic year that runs from February to December.

Student life

Benjani Mwaruwari played football at the University of Zimbabwe.

Residences

On the main campus there are five residences for women: Swinton Hall, Complexes 1, 4 and 5 and Carr-Saunders, and four residences for men: Manfred Hodson Hall, Complex 2, Complex 3 and Manfred Hodson Annex (formerly New Hall). There is also the Medical Residence at the Medical School campus and Mount Royal Residence in the

Avenues, in central Harare. The residences were closed in June 2007, with the university authorities citing maintenance and sanitation problems but were reopened in 2014.[24]

Sports, clubs, and traditions

The university has a target of at least one current or former UZ student representing the country in a medal winning sports team in international competitions annually.

All-Africa Games in 1995, UZ was the games village.[49] Maintenance of sporting facilities is the responsibility of the Director: Sport, but in recent years accessing funds from the State Procurement Board has been a challenge.[44]
Other popular and successful sporting disciplines at UZ are Basketball, Vollyeball, Rugby and Handball whom are all playing in the Harare professional leagues. In October 2015, the Sports Department organised a Handball festival in celebration of the university's 6oth anniversary and this festival has become an annual event ever since and the biggest handball festival in the country.

In most departments there are subject–related clubs or societies, for example the Kirk Biological Society[50] and the AIESEC and Students Institution for Success Club.[51] In 2005, UZ won the Students in Free Enterprise World Cup held in Ontario, Canada. There are also non–academic clubs such as Rotaract[52]

Gender

The gender gap in enrollment at UZ, like at African universities,[53] became a concern by the mid-1990s and in 1995 an affirmative action programme was built into the university's policy.[54] However, many female students feel inhibited from taking male-dominated courses or taking part in student politics. Women are intimidated by gender–related violence[53] and sexual exploitation.[55]

Notable people

Principals and vice-chancellors

See also: List of principals of the University of Zimbabwe

The first head of the university was

soil scientist professor Paul Mapfumo as acting Vice-Chancellor in August 2018 and substantive in June 2019.[60]

Faculty

Main article: List of University of Zimbabwe people § Faculty

Alumni

Main article: List of University of Zimbabwe people § Alumni

References

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  2. ^ "Academic Excellence Rewarded". University of Zimbabwe. Archived from the original on 21 May 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
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    (PDF) on 27 March 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  4. ^ Mambo, Elias (19 September 2014). "Zimbabwe: Grace Mugabe's PhD Scandal Torches Storm" – via AllAfrica.
  5. ^ a b Jesaro, May. "Zimbabwe's First Lady Grace Mugabe, awarded PhD, two months after enrollment". Standard Digital News.
  6. ^ a b Iaccino, Ludovica (15 September 2014). "Zimbabwe: Grace Mugabe Awarded PhD in Two Months from University where President Mugabe is Chancellor".
  7. ^ a b "Grace PhD fraud: Interview sheds light". 24 October 2014.
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  16. ^ Henry, Neil (13 May 1990). "A Decade After Winning Independence, Zimbabwe Is at a Crossroads". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 16 March 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
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  29. ^ "It's now Dr Grace and Dr Mujuru!". 13 September 2014.
  30. ^ "PICS: University students 'refuse to write exams until Mugabe goes'". News24. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
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  32. ^ a b Street Map of Harare (Map) (2002 ed.). Surveyor General, Zimbabwe.
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  36. ^ a b Kurasha, P. (2006). "Higher Education and Open and Distance Education as a Strategy for National Development: the ZOU Case" (PDF). UNESCO. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
  37. ^ University of Zimbabwe Academic Registry. (2005) General Academic Regulations for Undergraduate Degrees of the University of Zimbabwe.
  38. ^ "Undergraduate Prospectus of the University of Zimbabwe". University of Zimbabwe. 2006. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  39. ^ "Programmes". uz.ac.zw. University of Zimbabwe. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  40. ^ University of Zimbabwe (2006). "Postgraduate Prospectus of the University of Zimbabwe". Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  41. ^ "Ghanaian universities fail in world ranking". Ghana News. 13 June 2007. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
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  58. ISSN 0379-0622
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  59. ^ "Campus shuts to students over polls". Times Higher Education Supplement (UK). 8 March 2002. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
  60. ^ a b Chipunza, Paidamoyo (18 August 2018). "Grace Mugabe PhD: Nyagura suspended". The Herald. Retrieved 14 December 2018.

External links

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