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Yoliswa Dube Chronicle Reporter
President Mugabe has appointed Professor Pardon Kuipa as the Vice Chancellor for Lupane State University. The Chancellor of all State Universities also appointed Dr Nomathemba Ndiweni as the Pro-Vice Chancellor for the same institution.Prof Kuipa’s appointment is with effect from May 18, 2015. He replaces the late acting Vice Chancellor Dr Mclean Mackson Bhala who died in August last year.

Prof Kuipa was, until his recent appointment, the Pro Vice Chancellor of Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT). “He holds an MSc Degree in Chemical Engineering (with Distinction) from Ivanovo Institute of Chemical Engineering in Russia and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Bradford University in the United Kingdom. Prof Kuipa is a Chartered Engineer, registered with the Engineering Council (UK) and with the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe,” said the university Council in a statement.

Prior to his appointment as Pro Vice Chancellor of CUT, Prof Kuipa was a senior lecturer and dean respectively in the Faculty of Industrial Technology at the National University of Science and Technology.

He has supervised several M.Phil students, who have successfully completed their thesis and graduated.

“He is supervising four PhD students at CUT. He has over 29 publications. Prof Kuipa’s interests cover solvent extraction fundamentals, industrial effluent characterisation and treatment, membrane extraction (liquids) electrical dehydration of water in oil emulsions, beneficiation of kaolin clays, transesterification of oils/fats using solid catalysts to produce biodiesel and saleable glycerol,” read the statement.

LSU was established by an Act of Parliament in 2004 and started its operations in August 2005 with a pioneer group of 12 students enrolled to pursue a General Degree in Agricultural Sciences.

The University has three faculties, an enrolment of about 3,000 students and a workforce of about 300 employees. Five groups of students have so far graduated from LSU.

Although the university’s operations are in Bulawayo, its designated site is in Lupane in Matabeleland North Province where construction of the campus has been going on since 2006.