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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter

THE underdevelopment of the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) is inexcusable and the tertiary institution cannot blame Government for lagging behind, legislators said yesterday.

Members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher and Tertiary Education who visited the institution, decried lack of development since its establishment 28 years ago.

Nust, the committee members noted, is lagging far behind some state universities established after it.

The committee visited Gwanda State University and Lupane State University on Monday and Tuesday respectively before visiting Nust.

The committee’s chairperson Mr Daniel Molokele said it was depressing that Nust was lagging behind some State universities that were established after it in terms of infrastructure development.

“You have been accommodating 156 students since 1991 and Lupane is opening hostels this weekend which have three floors. The hostels will accommodate 700 students. It’s a much younger university. As Nust you really need to sit down and be honest with yourselves because sometimes it’s easy to be in a comfort zone and say no it’s the Government to blame. Think outside the box,” said Mr Molokele.

He said Nust will never be a leading university in Africa if it does not address accommodation problems as most of its students are living off campus.

Mr Molokele said infant institutions like Gwanda State University are able to accommodate all their students on campus hence it is inexcusable for Nust to be failing on this critical development area.

He said Nust should be involved in research projects that can generate income for the university, enter into public-private partnership for the development of the institution instead of always waiting for Government funding.

Mr Molokele said Nust can even leverage on its past students holding strategic positions in the Diaspora for partnerships that can develop the university.

He said the university should also consider twinning arrangements with other international institutions for knowledge transfer which is also a window of generating critical resources that can advance the university.

Meanwhile, Mr Molokele said Nust should have a deliberate policy biased towards enrolling students from Matabeleland region as it suffered underdevelopment during the early years of independence. 

“This is a university of science and technology, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo provinces are the most marginalised in terms of secondary schools and high schools that focus on science subjects and mathematics. This university therefore has no option but to come up with a deliberate policy of recruiting more students from these three provinces,” said Mr Molokele.

He was however quick to point out that his committee’s candid talk with the university officials was not meant to discredit them but was a wakeup call as the university has an important role to play in national development. 

Nust’s Vice Chancellor Professor Mqhele Dlodlo said the university noted the concerns from the legislators but was already rolling out a master plan to address some of the challenges.

During the deliberations the university’s pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Nduduzo Phuthi said Nust as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) mandated institution, had more expensive projects compared to other universities focusing on humanities and social sciences. 

“We need a lot of equipment. Equipment is mainly sourced from outside the country and is therefore very expensive. We need foreign currency to buy this equipment so some of the resources that are supposed to be channelled towards infrastructure development are spent on equipment,” said Dr Phuthi.

He aid the other challenge facing the university was lack of space for infrastructure development. 

“We have very limited space, we want more rooms, more teaching space, laboratories, studios, workshops and  offices”, said Dr Phuthi.

He said the university was also affected by Government’s job freeze, limiting recruitment of complementary staff. 

Dr Phuthi said Nust will strive to improve its standards to attract even international students.

The university officials took the committee to some of the institution’s buildings and its innovation hub which is almost complete. — @nqotshili