Universidade Lúrio

HERE’S A new addition to Mozambique’s higher education portfolio. Established in 2006, the University of Lurio is destined to turn into a major university servicing the country’s three most northerly provinces: Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Niassa, situated along the south-eastern shores of Lake Malawi. The first student intake at its headquarters in Nampula occurred in 2007. Construction of a third campus in Niassa will be completed by 2010, and it will offer courses related to agriculture and the environment. The second satellite is situated in the town of Pemba, provincial capital of Cabo Delgado, which opened in temporary accommodation in August 2008.

At the moment, only one faculty is fully operative: the Faculty of Health Sciences in Nampula. Just over 250 students are in training and all are engaged in studying for postgraduate degrees and diplomas in one of the university’s current departments of general medicine, dental medicine or pharmacy. A total of 43 academic and research staff are employed, 46,5 percent of which are women. This level of staffing provides a teaching/research staff to student ratio of 1:17; and ultimately the university aims to devote 25% of its institutional focus to research, although the university does not yet have a coherent research strategy in place.

The expansion of the University of Lurio away from its health sciences core is forging ahead. At the Pemba satellite campus, a Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences is being established. At the moment, the university is sharing accommodation with an Environmental Research Centre. However, the local municipal council has already identified a 12-hectare site for the construction of a permanent campus.

At the official opening of the Pemba satellite, the national Minister of Education and Culture said that the University of Lurio ‘ has positively surprised us because without much uproar it is producing results’.