The University of Namibia’s (Unam) southern campus recently came under scrutiny over the condition of its hostels, but that is less important because as an academic institution the main focus should rather be on the quality of education rather than the conditions of the campus, but currently that is not the case.
As a student I can [sadly] confirm that it is not the case at the moment and I feel like my money is going to waste as I’m not a loan holder nor a bursary holder.
As a first year student with just six months’ experience on campus, I only wish that the year can come to an end so I can move to a better campus or even another university worth my money.
I would like to share some of my experience of the six months I’ve been at Unam’s southern campus.
- The dysfunctional administration. With the Campus Director only being on campus for one week every month (part-time Director I presume) and for a couple of students being de-registered from campus because of poor administration during the registration process due to lack of competent staff members that do not know what the university admission requirements are. With no apology to students who struggled to pay their registration fee or whatsoever…
- Classrooms are a total mess, with students having to fight for seats and standing place in class and for that reason students spend close to 20 minutes of the 45-minute lecture grabbing chairs and desks from other classes in order for them to sit comfortably for the lecture.
- No computer literacy classes for any first-year students until today. Computer literacy is one of the required first-year core modules, but it’s almost end of the second semester and close to a rocking 370 first-year students haven’t had a class at all. How does one expect a student to pass?
- Hostel rules do not comply with the entire university rules and regulations and students are forced to sign in and out of the hostels like prisoners.
- The campus library is only built to accommodate 30 students while the campus has close to 400 registered students. The capacity still remains the same as last year when the campus had as little as 70 students.
- Students having relationships with their immediate lecturers and the Campus Director – if this is not unethical or against any laws, then it is still very uncomfortable for me as a student – and this type of behaviour promotes the sex-for-marks scandal that occurred years ago.
As a concerned student I call on the Chancellor and the Board of the University of Namibia to take up these matters before it gets out of hand, or at least save parents from wasting huge amounts of money on a joke of a campus.
Concerned Student