University of Namibia vice chancellor, professor Kenneth Matengu addressed the state of the university at the Hage Geingob campus yesterday, highlighting the accomplishments of the past year and setting the direction for the future of its 12 campuses.
During his address, he mentioned that over the past 30 years, the university has consistently grown and excelled in various aspects of education.
Notably, the university has produced 60 221 Namibian graduates from 1992 to 2022, with 3 415 coming from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, and 353 from non-SADC regions.
Matengu pointed out that 66% of these graduates are female, while 34% are male, emphasising that this isn’t due to an advantage for women, but may be linked to factors like boys finding school uninteresting or lacking role models, or coming from more affluent backgrounds.
“Looking at the percentage of men and women who are in university is worrisome. The university is doing quite well, but the majority are women, who are dominating. Where are all the men?” he questioned.
Unam is currently ranked 16th among the top 100 universities in Africa.
Matengu announced the university’s commitment to obtaining accreditation for all its undergraduate programmes from the National Council for Higher Education and relevant professional councils, with collaborations with international bodies for this very purpose.
Interestingly, the University of Namibia is the only institution to have completed this comprehensive accreditation process, he noted.
Matengu also underlined the international dimension of the university, with 250 active international partnerships and staff members hailing from 60 different countries. These international staff members are there to contribute to the growth of the university.
Furthermore, the academic mentioned the university’s renewable energy project, initiated in 2017 to address the high energy costs on campus. This project involves using solar energy to produce electricity, starting with the Khomasdal campus and eventually extending to all campuses.
“Despite all the achievements, Unam is not able to operate effectively because the money that is allocated to the university is not enough to cater for all the services,” he said.
He added that more than 100 cameras were installed on campus for safety purposes. More cameras will be installed in lecture halls and examination halls to prevent students from cheating.
Matengu stressed that some of the graduates produced by Unam are working abroad in big sectors.
“We train excellent doctors. We train exceptional pharmacists, outstanding dentists, dedicated vets, first-rated nurses, public health professionals, and allied health professionals.
We produce learned practitioners for the justice system; we educate the majority of Namibia’s teachers and educators; we train economists, bankers and accountants who manage our economy. We train scientists and researchers, including geologists, chemists, physicists and astronomers to push the frontiers of science. We conduct relevant and impactful research,” he emphasised.
Caption : Update…Unam vice chancellor, professor Kenneth Matengu delivering the state of the university address yesterday.
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