Lupane State University

THIS SMALL rural university opened its doors to 81 undergraduate students in 2005 – except that the doors were 175 km away from where the campus was being built. By mid-2008, it was still being built, and the university was continuing to operate out of temporary premises made available by the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo. Lupane is a small town just off the main highway between Bulawayo and the Victoria Falls, and not far from Hwange (formerly Wankie) National Park. The campus has been designed to accommodate 600 students. Meanwhile, the explanations for the Lupane State University construction delays range from a land dispute to a shortage of funds caused by the country’s high inflation rate devaluing the Z$8-trillion that had been allocated in the 2007/08 budget for the completion of the campus buildings.

The inaugural enrolments have all been into the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Long-term plans include the establishment of academic programmes in the environmental sciences, wildlife management, forestry, and engineering. For now though, the council of the struggling university has resolved to concentrate on agriculture; and, in an effort to assist the institution financially, to offer the services of academic staff to do agricultural studies and surveys on a commercial basis.

Of the nine academic staff at Lupane State University, one has a doctoral qualification, and six have masters degrees. The university has recently introduced a Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development that will ‘foster and facilitate sustained agriculture and development through the training of rural communities’. The university is also determined to build up a useful library. In this regard, a request to an international agency for books stated that ‘reading materials will assist the students and researchers to come up with knowledge and skills that will empower the rural communities and provide solutions for sustainable development’.