Today, the Chancellor of all state universities President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is presiding over the 24th Graduation Ceremony of the Midlands State University (MSU at its main campus in Gweru. A total of 8 332 students will be capped today, consisting of 4 507 female and 3 825 male graduands.
MSU is a government owned university in Zimbabwe it has 9 faculties (Agriculture, Arts, Commerce, Education, Engineering, Law, Science, Social Sciences and Medicine) offering a wide variety of courses and many specialist programmes. The university is accredited through the National Council for Higher Education, under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education of Zimbabwe.
The idea of a university in the Midlands Province dates back to the foundation of the National University of Science and Technology when Gweru, which was identified as a possible site for a second university campus in the country, lost its bid to Bulawayo.
Two other opportunities to host institutions of higher learning (the Open University and the Catholic University) were also missed by the Midlands Province, when the two universities went to Harare.
It was in the midst of such disappointments that two initiatives converged to give birth to what has since become the Midlands State University. The then President Robert Mugabe, on the nudging of the provincial political leadership of the Midlands, accepted the idea of a national university being built in the Midlands.
This coincided with the then Ministry of Higher Education and Technology’s policy of devolution, which was aimed at expanding access to higher education by converting teachers and technical colleges into degree granting institutions.
It was through the process of devolution that beginning in 1998 Gweru Teachers College started to enrol students studying for the Bachelor of Commerce with Education and the Bachelor of Science with Education degrees offered by the University of Zimbabwe.
Source Zwnews
