Great Zimbabwe University
THIS UNIVERSITY is currently situated on the Masvingo Teachers’ College campus seven kilometres east of Masvingo town. However, its main location will soon be further from Masvingo and much nearer to the Great Zimbabwe National Monument, where a larger campus is soon to be built. But delays have bedevilled the project, even though early in 2008 the government had allocated a further Z$6-trillion to finish the building of two complexes – one for the teaching of physics and the other for visual art training.
The Great Zimbabwe University began life as the Masvingo State University, which was established through the recommendations of the 1995 Chetsanga Report. The report had proposed the devolution of teachers’ and technical colleges into degree-awarding institutions that would eventually become universities in their own right. A university college attached to the University of Zimbabwe was accordingly launched in 1999/2000. Two years later, an Act of Parliament created the autonomous Masvingo State University. The name was changed to Great Zimbabwe University two years later. The university offers degree and diploma programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the arts, commerce, education and the sciences. The programmes are designed to be responsive to the needs of the job market in Zimbabwe’s ever-changing economy.
The university’s stated vision is to be ‘a centre of excellence in the creative arts and culture’. According to the publicity material, ‘the university’s curriculum reflects those elements that promote our culture, reinforce our dignity and self-confidence and underpin our national unity. The curriculum seeks to pursue heritage reclamation as symbolised by the Great Zimbabwe settlement’. The birth of this new university is therefore seen as heralding a new era in higher education, a period that should see the Zimbabwean education system covering an increasing range of modern disciplines while at the same time being firmly
anchored in the nation’s culture.
The Great Zimbabwe University began life as the Masvingo State University, which was established through the recommendations of the 1995 Chetsanga Report. The report had proposed the devolution of teachers’ and technical colleges into degree-awarding institutions that would eventually become universities in their own right. A university college attached to the University of Zimbabwe was accordingly launched in 1999/2000. Two years later, an Act of Parliament created the autonomous Masvingo State University. The name was changed to Great Zimbabwe University two years later. The university offers degree and diploma programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the arts, commerce, education and the sciences. The programmes are designed to be responsive to the needs of the job market in Zimbabwe’s ever-changing economy.
The university’s stated vision is to be ‘a centre of excellence in the creative arts and culture’. According to the publicity material, ‘the university’s curriculum reflects those elements that promote our culture, reinforce our dignity and self-confidence and underpin our national unity. The curriculum seeks to pursue heritage reclamation as symbolised by the Great Zimbabwe settlement’. The birth of this new university is therefore seen as heralding a new era in higher education, a period that should see the Zimbabwean education system covering an increasing range of modern disciplines while at the same time being firmly
anchored in the nation’s culture.
Facts and Figures at a Glance
Great Zimbabwe University evolved from Masvingo State University, and is located in the city of Masvingo. It is named after the Great Zimbabwe ruins that are found just outside the city.
In the absence of a questionnaire response from Masvingo State University, no information could be found as the institution’s website could not be accessed at the time that this report was prepared. A search of the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education’s web site and resources gathered during the desk top research yielded no further information.
