Conrad Mupesa, Mashonaland West Bureau
President Mnangagwa yesterday capped 3 545 Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) students who received degrees and diplomas with a call for the graduates to help transform the country.
CUT Vice Chancellor, Professor David Jambwa Simbi said the institution had managed to equip the graduates with enough practical knowledge and they were now prepared for the world.
Out of the total graduates, 1 873 (53 percent) were males with the remaining 1 672 (47 percent) being females.
There were 2 228 recipients of undergraduate degrees and diplomas while 25 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy Degrees with 19 receiving Master of Philosophy degrees.
President Mnangagwa took time to meet four outstanding graduates who were awarded the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Chancellor’s Awards.
President Mnangagwa
They were Ruvimbo Blossom Mudhumo and Tinashe Robert Chiminya, who were the best female and male students respectively, each pocketing US$1 000.
Mudhumo graduated with a first class Honours Degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation while Chiminya was the overall best graduating male student with first class Honours Degree in Environmental Engineering.
Shalom Nikita was the overall second best graduating female student with a first class Honours degree in Information Technology. Simbarashe Mupesa was the overall second best graduating male student with a first class Honours Degree in Environmental Health.
Chinhoyi University of Technology graduates follow proceedings at the institution’s 20th graduation ceremony yesterday. – Picture: Believe Nyakudjara
The graduates vowed to contribute to the country’s development and address challenges facing the nation including environmental mismanagement and to develop projects to counter various problems using IT.
Prof Simbi said the institution’s products where part of the solution to Zimbabwe’s problems.
“The university prides itself in the provision of higher education needs that will meet skills and competences that are required to drive Zimbabwe’s economy to achieve a middle-income economy by 2030.
“From the onset of the Second Republic, the agenda of modernisation of Zimbabwe has remained topical. Your university of technology aptly embraced the country’s vision.
“When you laid a foundation stone at our agro-industrial park, it was an affirmation to us of your desire for a food-secure Zimbabwe, and to this end, the university’s education curriculum has been revised to meet the learning needs for programmes that impart skills and practical competences for the production of goods and services,” he said.
The university, through its cattle breeding programme, had aided the country’s livestock herd enhancement.
It had been able to demonstrate the multi-faceted nature of the agro-business industry through semen collection, processing and packaging, artificial insemination, beef and dairy cattle breeding as well as pellets for medicinal animal feed among others.
Prof Simbi also said apart from benefiting the students and the communities, the university had managed to generate funds through the projects.
“These functional units provide the necessary student training environment in process technology, engineering and agro-business while at the same time generating some income for the university.”
The university had also tabled plans to establish an abattoir and a meat processing plant to complete the meat-value-chain cycle.
An expansion of the maize milling unit for the university’s consumption and sales in the province was also at an advanced stage.
Prof Simbi implored captains of industry to support the students during their period of learning.
The 20th graduation ceremony ran under the theme “Innovating for Sustainable Growth: Towards an Industrialised Zimbabwe”.
It was also attended by Higher and Tertiary Education Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, Health and Child Care Minister, Dr Douglas Mombeshora and Mashonaland West Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Marian Chombo, senior Government officials and representatives of other universities.
Chinhoyi University of Technology graduates take the university’s Alumni Oath at the institution’s 20th graduation ceremony yesterday. – Picture: Believe Nyakudjara
SOURCE: The Herald
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