ONGWEDIVA – The founding president Dr Sam Nujoma on Wednesday officially opened the N$120 million Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Namibia’s Ongwediva campus.
The new faculty named the Indian Wing will increase the student intake capacity to 260. The University of Namibia (Unam)’s Ongwediva campus offers study programmes in mining and computer engineering. The new faculty is named the Indian Wing, because of the generous sponsorship by the government of India. Another newly constructed building will be used as an information and resource centre.
At the inauguration the founding president appealed to the government to avail more resources to ensure the star-shaped campus has all the required support facilities. “I wish to appeal to the Government of Namibia to make resources available to ensure that all the five phases of the faculty are completed, including the supporting facilities such as student hostels, cafeteria and sports facilities, in line with the growing population of students,” said Nujoma. Nujoma also appealed to the students, particularly the engineering students to cherish the magnificent facilities at their disposal and to take maximum care of them so that they can be used by future generations.
Founding Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Professor Frank Kavishe related the history of the engineering faculty that was negotiated between 2007 and 2009. According to him since the completion of the Indian Wing students no longer have to travel to Oshakati to access the library. Kavishe said the Indian Wing makes provision for additional lecture halls, computer labs, heavy equipment labs, office accommodation and a library. In addition, phase two of the faculty also benefited from two other buildings financed by the government. According to Kavishe, the largest auditorium has a sitting capacity of 420. The auditorium is named after the faculty’s patron, who at the time was the mayor of Ongwediva when the town council donated the land to Unam, Deputy Minister of Safety and Security, Erastus Uutoni.
Apart from the recently completed Indian Wing the campus will soon boast a high voltage, high energy X-ray laboratory and a high frequency ultrasonic testing laboratory that will be used exclusively to test and investigate the quality of engineering materials, such as steel, aluminium, copper, cast iron, plastic, concrete and fine ceramic. According to Kavishe Unam is in consultation with the Radiation Protection Unit of the Ministry of Health and Social Services to accredit the lab to make it a National Non-Destructive Testing Laboratory. Nujoma pledged N$20 000 on the day, in addition to pledges of N$150 000 by other parties.
The construction of phase three of the engineering faculty, which will be made possible through a donation by the German government, is expected to kick off later this year.
By Nuusita Ashipala