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Prof Rungano Zvobgo

George Maponga, Masvingo Bureau
The Great Zimbabwe University’s growth trajectory continues to rise as the province’s biggest tertiary institution is set to start building a multi-million dollar medical school in the country’s oldest town.

The institution has over the years grown to become Zimbabwe’s third largest university with an enrolment of more than 13 000 students.

GZU Vice Chancellor Professor Rungano Zvobgo recently announced that the institution’s School of Medicine will start taking shape in the next six months.

The GZU School of Medicine will be built on the outskirts of Masvingo City at a place that used to house Riverside Lodge.

“We have not yet decided on the size of our initial enrolment for our School of Medicine and the exact cost of the project but what I can safely say is that in the next six months there will be a structure at our School of Medicine,” he said.

Great Zimbabwe University will join other elite institutions of higher learning in Zimbabwe offering medical studies such as the University of Zimbabwe, National University of Science and Technology and Midlands State University.

“Everything that is at what used to be Riverside Lodge will be razed to the ground and that place, which was acquired by the university, will house a state- of- the art School of Medicine,” Professor Zvobgo said.

He said the School of Medicine will be affiliated to the University of Zimbabwe.

This means the college would follow the curriculum and regulations guiding studies at the UZ School of Medicine.

Professor Zvobgo also took time to hint on plans to introduce STEM subjects with plans to establish stand-alone schools that would offer programmes in engineering.

The move would be in-line with the Government thrust to promote the teaching of science subjects and expedite Zimbabwe’s industrialisation.

The Great Zimbabwe University was initially founded with a mandate to promote the teaching of arts, culture and heritage studies.

The university will maintain its niche but also embrace the teaching of science subjects to produce graduates who answer to Zimbabwe’s human resources needs.

The MSU enrolled its inaugural group of 20 medical students in February last year and the impending opening of a School of Medicine at Great Zimbabwe will see more doctors being churned out.

Great Zimbabwe University already boasts one of the best law schools in the country, the Herbert Chitepo Law School and the opening of a School of Medicine will further consolidate its status as one of the best and fastest growing institutions of higher learning in Zimbabwe.