Zimbabwe to set up first graduate school named after Mugabe 

HARARE, Aug. 11 — Zimbabwe’s first graduate school named after
President Robert Mugabe is set to be established following government’s
approval of a 1 billion U.S. dollars grant for construction of the
university, an official said Wednesday.

Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister
Jonathan Moyo said the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University was to be
established in honor of President Mugabe’s commitment to education and
exemplary leadership. He said the institution will be fully dedicated to
the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM),
becoming the first STEM university in the country. One unique feature of
the university will be the Robert Gabriel Mugabe Institute which will focus
on research, historical collections, library and studies in transformative
and revolutionary leadership, the minister said.

The university will be managed by the Robert Mugabe Foundation, with
President Mugabe and First Lady, Grace Mugabe being the founding
trustees.”The academic thrust of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe University will
concentrate on critical STEM areas almost exclusively at graduate level to
produce super specialists and super experts who will champion Zimbabwe’s
industrialization and modernization for sustainable socio-economic
transformation and development,” minister Moyo was quoted as saying by
state-run news agency New Ziana.

Moyo said it would cost more than the 1 billion dollars to complete the
university, which will be equipped with state of the art laboratories and
schooling equipment. He said out of the grant, 800 million dollars will go
towards construction of the institution while 200 million dollars will fund
establishment of the University Endowment Fund for Research and Innovation.
The university will be located in Mazowe, 40 km north of the capital Harare
where the First Lady already runs state-of- the- art primary and secondary
schools. Currently, all universities in Zimbabwe enroll students from
Advanced Level but the graduate university will only take students who
would have completed university education.The institution will have
capacity to enroll 15,000 students who will be incubated by the University
of Zimbabwe (UZ). UZ Vice Chancellor Professor Levy Nyagura said the
university will primarily focus on computer engineering, nano-science and
nano technology, bio-technology engineering, telecommunications and
electronic engineering.-XINHUA