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Midlands Bureau Chief

THE Midlands State University (MSU) has tabled 170 new degree programmes to the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (Zimche) led peer reviewers for possible accreditation.

The Zimche led peer reviewers are on a week-long visit at MSU to review the proposed new degree programmes.

Zimche is a regulatory and quality assurance body established in 2006 within the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development to promote and coordinate education provided by institutions of higher education and to act as a regulator in the determination and maintenance of quality standards.

The mandate of Zimche is to promote and coordinate education provided by institutions of higher education and to act as a regulator in the determination and maintenance of standards of teaching, examinations, academic qualifications and research in institutions of higher education.

It is a statutory requirement for proposed programmes to be rigorously scrutinized by Zimche experts and peer reviewers to see if they meet quality academic standards.

The proposed new programmes by MSU will be made public once they have been accredited by Zimche.

MSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Victor Muzvidziwa said the proposed degrees are a response to the 2018 national critical skills audit report.

The national critical skills audit is one of three initiatives, including the Zimbabwe national qualifications framework and the Zimbabwe national geospatial and space agency, announced to drive the country’s transformation agenda.

“We have over 170 programmes that you are here to review and accredit. They represent our response to the needs of Education 5.0, the national critical skills audit of 2018, Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy (NDS 1),” Prof Muzvidziwa said.

He said the proposed new programmes were also responding to the needs of the fourth industrial revolution.

“Futuristic degrees will make MSU graduates relevant, competitive, employable and useful in the future,” said Prof Muzvidziwa.

In his remarks before starting the review process, Zimche chief executive officer Prof Kuzvinetsa Nzvimbo said there is a need to ensure the highest quality standards of education at MSU since it has the largest student population in the country.

MSU has over 23 000 students at its campuses in Gweru, Zvishavane and Harare.

Prof Nzvimbo commended the institution of higher learning for its quality academic standards which are seen by the impact of its graduates internationally.

He however emphasized the need for Zimche to continually monitor and ensure quality academic standards at MSU since it is a key driver in the national human capital development programme.

“Your institution plays a critical role in the development of the person power that is required by this country to push our two critical agendas. One of ensuring that Zimbabwe becomes an upper-middle-class economy by the year 2030 and to prepare men and women with skills that are required into the future,” said Prof Nzvimbo.

“This institution has got such large numbers of students which means that you have a big piece of the pie in terms of training human resources that are required for this country. This is why those of us in Zimche watch what you do at this institution with a hawk’s eye because your piece of the pie is very big.”