By Frederick Philander
WINDHOEK
“African universities are frequently blamed for not making their fund of expertise and wisdom available in a usable form to their communities and the rest of the world.”
This was said yesterday by the editor at the launch of the Namibia Development Journal at UNAM, Professor R. Zimba. He was one of two speakers who officiated at the occasion at the UNAM library.
“It is often claimed that a university’s knowledge is shrouded in so much technical jargon that it is not readily useful to policy-makers and community members. When perceived in this way, the institution’s relevancy and credibility are either legitimately or unfairly questioned,” said Professor Zimba of the launch of the open access-publishing outlet.
This is the first time such a journal has been launched since the idea was conceived in the early Nineties.
“One way of enhancing the relevancy and the credibility of African universities is that of translating their reservoir of skills, competencies, expertise, innovations and wisdom into a language that government officials, civil society and communities can understand and make use of it,” the editor said of the multi-disciplinary peer reviewed electronic publication aimed at providing an outlet for research reports.
The Vice-Chancellor of UNAM, Professor Lazarus Angula, welcomed the establishment of the journal.
“We hope this journal will provide a forum for publishing new ideas and knowledge in the multi-disciplinary field of development in Namibia as well as in Africa. I also hope the new journal will address the yawning gap which UNAM has felt for some time in the area of disseminating research and academic writings both for its own staff and people elsewhere,” Angula said.
He also noted that UNAM spends a considerable amount of money each year to fund research as well as colloquia.
“University staff are often invited to attend conferences all over the world in which they present papers and keynote addresses. However, we at UNAM have not had such a tool as this through which we could share those intellectual products of the minds of our own intellectuals and others from other countries or the rest of the world,” he revealed.
According to Angula open-access publishing in universities has now become a handy way of disseminating knowledge produced in the normal course of the business of institutions of higher learning.
“UNAM will continue to use the medium of the internet in new ways to fulfill our mandate and mission of offering quality education, research and production of knowledge, and providing community service to the nation and the public at large. Many such journals have been launched, but most of them have come out once or twice and faded away soon afterwards largely because of a lack of funding,” he intimated. The new journal is to be registered with the International Network for Scientific Publications.