2018-02-21Staff Report 2 Albertina Nakale Windhoek-Namibia’s only fully fledged privately owned university, International University of Management (IUM), is set to introduce a two-year pharmacist assistant programme commencing this year. The university’s founder and chairperson Dr David Namwandi on Monday said the university will form a partnership with the Pharmaceutical Society of Namibia in rolling out a two-year pharmacist assistant programme. The programme will start during this academic year. In Namibia there are control bodies such as the Health Professional Council that controls the day-to-day work of pharmacists and ensures that they carry out their work the way they should, as well as the Namibia Medicine Control Council that controls all the medicine that comes into the country to ensure that the country receives the medicine it needs. Namwandi says the university will also establish a graduate entrepreneurship programme that will provide students with a great opportunity for practical exposure to entrepreneurship as well as nurturing good, sound business ideas. Furthermore, the IUM recently concluded an exchange programme agreement with an institution in Hungary where IUM staff pursuing undergraduate degrees, masters and doctorates in philosophy degrees, in various programmes, would qualify for internship. IUM will foot the bill to ensure they successfully complete their internship overseas. Meanwhile, the Ombili Health Centre also signed an agreement through which IUM staff members and students at all IUM campuses would acquire free basic medical care. Further, he noted the first cohort of the four-year bachelor honours degree of nursing will be graduating this year. He said the students have already been deployed in private and public hospitals and clinics as they await their graduation in September this year. He also promised that some would be employed at IUM’s various on-campus clinics. He said IUM has introduced the concept of video-conferencing which will enable students to attend classes remotely. The university has also installed video-conference equipment at its Windhoek, Ongwediva and Nkurenkuru campuses which will allow a lecturer at one campus to lecture and address other students in other parts of the country or in Malawi where IUM also has students. Moreover, he revealed IUM is in the process of expanding in terms of infrastructural development in order to give students the best possible shelter during their period of study. “The university has seen the great need for student accommodation, and it is for this reason that the governing council under my chairmanship, approved the construction of the multi-million dollar hostel facilities,” he said. The constriction is expected to commence in March and will cater for not less than 500 male and female students in Windhoek and 200 students in Ongwediva and Nkurenkuru, respectively. IUM currently has 10,000 students enrolled. 2018-02-21Staff Report 2
