MARTIN MAWAYA
GWERU-Women graduates dominated the 24th Midlands State University graduation ceremony presided over by President Mnangagwa who is also the Chancellor of State universities.
The graduation is one of the biggest since the establishment of the university where 8 332 students received their caps of knowledge, with women constituting 54.1% of the graduands or 4 507.
One of the women who shone at the historic graduation ceremony was energetic dancer, musician and politician, Sandra Ndebele who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Business, Musicology and Technology.
This year’s number of graduands increased by more than 1 300 from 6 995 who graduated in 2022.
In his keynote address, MSU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Victor Muzvidziwa said of the total graduands, “ 203 are graduating with honours first class pass and 75 Masters graduands have distinction, merits and awards”.
“We are excited that 10 PHDs and 4 MPhil graduands will be awarded degrees today,” added Prof Muzvidziwa.
This year’s oldest graduand was 65 years old and graduated with a Masters of Education degree in early childhood development and child protection, whilst the youngest was 25years and was conferred with honours degree in Food Science and Technology.
Prof Muzvidziwa said the exceptionally high number of graduands was a result of the multi-campus strategy.
He paid tribute to the former educationist and founding Vice Chancelor of MSU, the late Professor Emeritus Ngwabi Bhebe who will be buried at the National Heroes Acre on Saturday.
The late Bhebe was praised for his contribution in shaping the MSU as well as charting the education ship.
“Your Excellence and Chancellor, we congregate today with a heavy sense of loss following the passing on of our beloved founding Vice Chancellor, Professor Emeritus Ngwabi Mulunge Bhebe who had a larger than life presence.
“It is a great burden to bear the loss of such an accomplished and prominent scholar, yet it is also an honour to bear witness of his great work in establishing MSU,” said Prof Muzvidziwa.
The MSU has been playing a pivotal role in the socio-economic transformation of the country through research and innovations.
Through the Research and Innovation Division, the country has witnessed facilitation of technology transfer, protection of intellectual property, and an enabling environment for commercialization of produced goods and services.
The MSU incubation hub has also prototyped a modified plant for the manufacturing of sodium hypochlorite and chlorine, a home grown solution for water purification.
This year, the university also scooped 7 accolades at the momentous inaugural Presidential Innovation Fair and Excellence awards.
A senior lecture at MSU who chose not to be named for professional reasons applauded the direction the country’s education system is taking, but was quick to say the graduands have nowhere to go as most of them will be jobless and end up taking up menial or doing something completely divorced from what they studied at college.
“We need to do something with our body politics so that the graduates being churned out day in, day out get employment as everything begins with right politics, right policies, everything follows politics, it is sad to see a person with a Masters selling airtime and second hand clothes in the streets, engaging in cat and mouse battles with municipal police,” she added.
