National University of Science and Technology

ZIMBABWE’S SECOND city, Bulawayo in the southwesterly quarter of the country, gained its own university – the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) – in 1991. Ten years later, the country’s second medical school, the Bulawayo College of Health Sciences was established,
housed within NUST facilities, but with its clinical departments set up in the Mpilo and United Bulawayo hospitals.

The idea of a second university for Zimbabwe first surfaced in the years immediately following independence, but it was not until the late 1980s that a commission was set up to explore the possibilities. The commission’s conclusion was that in view of the increasing number of A-level students exiting the country’s schools, university expansion‘ is not only justified: it is a necessity’. So in 1991, the new university opened its doors with 270 students and 28 academic staff. By 2007, the academic staff complement had risen to 182, with 82 percent of them holding qualifications at masters level, and the remainder with doctorates. Besides the health sciences college, NUST offers a variety of academic programmes through its three faculties: Commerce; Applied Science; and Industrial Technology. An innovation with considerable potential is the setting up of a university-related Technology Park where NUST will interact with local industry, effecting technology transfer and the commercialisation of university research. It is planned that a likely first focus in the Park would be in the fields of electronics and ICT.

The problem in the present climate is start-up funding. Finance is everywhere the problem. Students from other SADC countries have decreased substantially as Zimbabwe’s economy has moved towards collapse. NUST has the ICT infrastructure to facilitate regional collaboration, but lacks the necessary technical support. Nevertheless, a few collaborative programmes still exist with neighbouring countries. However, the greatest impediment to more vigorous regional  partnerships, according to NUST itself, is internal apathy.