Crispen Bhukuvhani

Senior Lecturer

Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE)

Zimbabwe

 

 

 

Mr Bhukuvhani holds a Licentiate Degree in Education (Chemistry and Computer Science) Cuba and a Master Degree in Science Education (Curriculum Studies) BUSE.
His research Interests are: Science and Technology Education, Innovation in Science Teacher Education

His major contribution are:

• Published two book chapters.
• He has 19 journals article published in peer reviewed journals to his credit.
• He has presented and facilitated at various conferences and workshops locally and abroad.

More details about his publications and on-going research are available at the following URLs:

http://digilib.buse.ac.zw:8090/xmlui/browse?value=Bhukuvhani%2C+Crispen&type=author

http://www.buse.ac.zw/index.php/faculty/faculty-of-science-education?layout=edit&id=513

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EMsqk-kAAAAJ&hl=en

 

Mr Bhukuvhani was recognized for contributing the highest number of articles in the BUSE Institutional Repository in 2013.

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Blessing Chiparausha

Anthony Nhamo Mhiripiri Profile

Anthony Nhamo Mhiripiri was born in 1968. He holds a doctoral degree in Media and Cultural Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he also conducted a post-doctoral fellowship. He is currently a senior lecturer in the Media & Society Studies Department, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe.
He has published critical chapters in Emerging Perspectives on Dambudzo Marechera and The Hidden Dimensions of Operation Murambatsvina, and articles in several journals including the Journal of African Cinema, Journal of African Media Studies and Screening the Past.
Nhamo is a fiction writer and poet widely featured in several works in anthologies such as Dreams Miracles and Jazz, No More Plastic Balls, A Roof to Repair, State of the Nation and Ghetto Diary and Other Poems.
He studied literature at A-level and for my bachelors degree. He particularly liked old Russian authors like Dostoyevsky, Chekhov of the short stories, and the so-called Soviet dissident writers like Solzhenitsyn and Boris Pasternak. he was proud of reading beyond the set texts.

The spirited African writer said that there are certainly many things from my formative years right to early adulthood that inspired him to write. It was usually the township landscape and the characters he saw there both from a close intimate position, and as a detached (participant) observer.
After obtaining his BA in English and History at the University of Zimbabwe, he embarked on a post-graduate diploma and later an MA in media and Communication Studies. He has worked as a high school teacher, a researcher, a lecturer at the Zimbabwe Open University, and was founding Acting Dean for the Faculty of Arts and Social Science at Zimbabwe’s Midlands State University until January 2001.
In 2000 he successfully published two short stories publication with College Press Zimbabwe namely No More Plastic Balls and A Roof to Repair.

He laments his use of poetry, as its intensity and density, as an uneasy catharsis for his troubled country and self. At times he feels his poetry address public issues like state injustice, political violence, inflation and corruption. The short stories are much more subtle and delicate.
Mhiriphiri said “While I still prefer writing about the marginalised or the underdog, I find that it takes deeper analytical skills to discern subversion in the apparently innocuous stories about township poverty, an infants rebellion against his bigoted and over-protective parents, early maturation and sexual precociousness, impotence and confessions, superstitious and its place in an African post-modern context like ours, rape and the pathology of power, and so forth”

Mhiripiri has worked as a teacher and writer and his wife, Joyce Tsitsi Mutiti, is an equally gifted writer. At the Midlands State University the English and Communication Studies honours students have a module in creative writing and his wife, Joyce, was invited to make a presentation there one semester. He thinks there is something to be gained from the teaching of writing as some universities are teaching creative writing modules.
In 2000,Mhiripiri’s 10 stories were distributed in two anthologies, namely No more plastic balls and A roof to repair, and still some stories were left over to be published by Mambo Press in yet another anthology, Creatures great and small.  Publishers usually complain that Zimbabweans do not buy books unless they are textbooks or set-books for public examinations.
Nhamo says it’s true because the country can’t ignore the economics of the publishing industry. Textbooks often subsidies fiction in Zimbabwe, notwithstanding the reality of fictional bestsellers that can equally subsidise the publication of newer fiction.

Sadly, Zimbabwe have very few powerful publishers who can actually seal writers’ fate as Zimbabwean authors in terms of whether one is going to be known or remain obscure and minor. He added that his generation was disadvantaged in that, very few of their books have been selected for the lucrative school examination system. He personally suspect avarice, corruption and chicanery.
Aspiring writers always need a published mentor or role model to inspire them in their creative endeavors. When he was an undergraduate student at the University of Zimbabwe he noted quite a number of people who made a name on the literary.
Mhiripiri just hope that the students enjoy the module and are not merely there to satisfy examination requirements. If universities give more space and time to those that are creatively inclined probably Africa will have more masterpieces such as Harvest of Thorns, which he understand was Shimmer Chinodyas Masters degree project at a US varsity.
Zimbabwe has a very strong and deeply rooted literary tradition and quality literature continues to be published. The country has authors that have submitted their works for international literary competitions such as Caine Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize have done wonderfully.
The most vibrant publishing houses rely on international donor funding and this compromises quality and the content. Some books strain to satisfy donor interests and editors manipulate manuscripts to please international capital. Mhiripiri said that he expect outsiders to promote the country’s most expressive, most intimate and most sacred art form.

“Literary art is our heart, and the best fiction and prose can define a nation soul and ambition. A cerebral and insightful literature humanises the people that read it since it allows critical reflection by the very nature of its medium and form” said Mhiripiri.

What is important for anybody who calls himself a Zimbabwean writer is to find a reasonable amount of inspiration stemming from Zimbabwe centered subject-matter and characters, and to write as honestly as they can in spite of their own biases and prejudices. Zimbabwean writers are just writers, whether Diasporic, black or white.

Gulu University community counselors helping to improve on mental health services in Northern Uganda.

By Willy Cho woo

In Gulu/Gulu University.

The protracted armed conflict between the rebel Lords’ Resistance Army LRA and Uganda government that lasted for over two decades in the north has led to destruction of infrastructures and lives. Worst among others is the health service.

Notably there have been rampant cases of outbreak of diseases such as Ebola, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B, Suicide and Epilepsy (Nodding syndrome) in the region which claimed dozen of f lives.

Gulu University which started in the year 2003 to transform the region that has been  ravaged by the armed confirmed  has now embarked on  doing a number of research  works to help bridge the gaps have been left by this burden

Emilio Ovuga, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Gulu University says this is the only way to support the health, social and psycho-culture in the region.

Dr.Ovuga who is also a lead consultant for ongoing Research support works at the university says at moment they are involved in doing a number of research works related to mental issues

Some of the research being done include Post-conflict mobility: opportunities for primary health care in post-conflict Northern Uganda.

This study is to determine the patterns of migration and mobility in Northern Uganda in relation to morbidity patterns and the provision of services for non-communicable diseases at community level.

“We are also testing and replicating the feasibility of lay community counselors being able to prevent suicide by providing psychological first aid to individuals in crisis at household level.”, he adds.

The University under this study has so far trained 88 primary health care providers at rural health facilities in Amuru and Districts in Northern Uganda, 54 volunteer lay counselors in Gulu District and 14 research field assistants attached to the Primary Health Care Project in order to promote access to essential basic mental health services in the district and successfully implement the mental health promotion and suicide prevention strategy.

To enhance the success of our initiative, “we have developed district wide referral system from household level to the regional referral hospital in Gulu. We earlier were able to reduce suicide rates in Adjumani district, another post-conflict district in the West Nile region of Northwestern Uganda by 87% over a three year period using volunteer community counselors in 2004-2007.”,Dr.Ovuga narrates.

The ongoing study in Gulu district indicates that trained volunteer lay peer counselors (Village Helpers) are able to reduce suicide rates by at least 75% in less than one year and to have created awareness among the population about the feasibility and effectiveness of early mental

Health care intervention using lay members of the community under the supervision of mental health professionals.

The university is also doing a research on Nodding syndrome: a possible relationship with mycotoxins?

This study is to find the potential role of food contamination with fungi that are known to contaminate foodstuffs at the time of harvest and or storage in Northern Uganda.

Under the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI-MESAU is to contribute to increased number of health workers by contributing to increased undergraduate students admissions to Ugandan medical schools, contribute to retention of doctors in under-served rural areas of Uganda, contribute to increased access to basic health care and to improve the quality of medical education by standardizing medical education at Ugandan medical schools.

The university has completed a number of research among which it include; Neurocysticercosis – a neglected disease in Sub-Saharan Africa under German Research Foundation Project

This was to determine the prevalence, risk factors for epilepsy in Northern Uganda .determine the prevalence of neurocysticercosis among individuals with epilepsy and   to develop a diagnostic serologic test for the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis among individuals with epilepsy in Northern Uganda.

Dr.Emilio Ovuga is a raging professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Gulu University

 Written By Chowoo WIlly

Dr. Ovuga speaking at the Faculty of Medicine at Gulu during an interview with Chowoo Willy

Emilio Ovuga, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Gulu University. A medical practitioner and psychiatrist by profession, Dr. Ovuga holds a joint Doctor of Philosophy in Suicidology and Suicide Prevention, and Psychiatric Epidemiology of Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University.

Dr. Ovuga served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Gulu University from February 2007 to June 2012. He is the founding Chairman of the Forum of Research and Ethics Chairpersons in Uganda (FRECU) and served in that capacity from 2009-2015.

Dr. Ovuga has held various positions of responsibility at Makerere University from 1989-2006. Prior to that Dr. Ovuga worked as Psychiatrist at Mathare Mental Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya (1981- 1982); as Provincial Psychiatrist at Kakamega Provincial Hospital in Western Kenya (1982-1984); and as Senior Psychiatrist in the Transkei Homeland of South Africa (1984-1989).

Dr. Ovuga is a researcher, medical practitioner and educator, administrator, mentor, and has conducted research in wide-ranging fields in health and social sciences related to population, health promotion and in peace building.

Dr. Ovuga, in the service of Makerere University, revitalized the Department of Psychiatry from near-collapse to a vibrant department, and his work led to the recognition of psychiatry as an important clinical discipline that became examinable in its own right for the award of the medical degree of Makerere University.

Dr. Ovuga’s negotiations with the Ugandan Ministry of Health led to the rapid scale up of the strengthening of the Department of Psychiatry, and the subsequent training of psychiatrists to PhD levels. Dr. Ovuga has developed curricula for training medical undergraduate students in basic psychiatry, graduate students in psychiatry at master’s level, and lay community members in lay peer counseling of people in crisis.

Dr. Ovuga currently trains, supervises and mentors doctoral and post-doctoral fellows in psychiatry and mental health for psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. Dr. Ovuga believes in, and practices multidisciplinary and multi-professionalism in teaching and research so as to enhance a university’s relevance and responsiveness to the needs of communities.

As a Principal Investigator or Co-PI on 7 research grants that he attracted to Gulu University, Dr. Ovuga has promoted a sustainable research culture at Gulu University, which was established in Northern Uganda in 2002. As a strategic tool, Dr. Ovuga established a Grants Management Unit (GMU) at the Faculty of Medicine in 2009 to support young investigators at

Gulu University in the processes of developing, submitting grant applications, and subsequently managing grants.

Dr. Ovuga has been an instrumental member of the NIH-funded Ugandan MEPI-MESAU consortium in Uganda as well as a member of the Welcome Trust-funded THRiVE project consortium in East Africa. Dr. Ovuga actively advocated for the training and mentor-ship of undergraduate students in research as a strategy to build health research capacity in Uganda. In an effort to impart practical skills in students, Dr. Ovuga has developed guidelines and provided training opportunities for young investigators and students in research.

In his work with communities, Dr. Ovuga has empowered communities to take charge of, and responsibility for their social and health situations, and in improving their relations with government departments. A key example of this empowerment is Dr. Ovuga’s contribution to mental health promotion and suicide prevention using trained lay community counselors (Village

Helpers) in Adjumani district in the early 2000’s and Gulu district (ongoing) where suicide rates dropped by more than 75% within less than a year.

During the course of his teaching and research career, Dr. Ovuga contributed to the establishment of the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (A.P.O.C.) as a member of the WHO/TDR research team on the psycho-social importance of, and treatment of onchocercal skin disease in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Shortly thereafter Dr. Ovuga contributed to the development of the concept of community-directed distribution of Ivermectin, the drug used in the control of onchocerciasis in endemic areas of SSA, for the WHO through a pilot study in Uganda. As a peace builder, Dr. Ovuga also made a humble contribution, as a social scientist on the Northern Uganda Peace Initiative (NUPI), to the initiation of peace talks between the Government of Uganda and the terrorist rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army of Joseph Kony, which eventually ended the 20-year-long rebel insurgency in northern Uganda in 2006.

Overall, Dr. Ovuga’s research work and philosophy has led to the enhancement of community empowerment to enable them assume responsibility for their welfare in collaboration with professionals in all fields of social services.

Dr. Ovuga believes that this can best be achieved through creating “expertise” among lay non-professionals including community members that might have no formal classroom education. Dr. Ovuga achieves this goal by using and integrating his professional background training knowledge and skills into traditional knowledge attitudes beliefs systems, and cultural practice systems of rural communities to address local health problems without antagonizing traditional views and perceptions; in doing so Dr. Ovuga’s approach has so far not jeopardized the success of health intervention outcomes in communities where this need has been expressed.

Dr. Ovuga is a family man, married to Elizabeth Nandaula, and has raised nine children with six grand children so far. His love for his children has earned the perception that his “children are daddy’s children”. His relationship with his children earned his the Xosa name, Mzwandile, while his love for peaceful coexistence among people of different social backgrounds earned him the additional Xosa name, Mxolisi.

Raised as an only child in a poor remote corner of northwestern region of Uganda in Adjumani district, Dr. Ovuga actively supported his peasant parents in cultivating their land, fishing and selling produce to raise school fees for his early education. Dr. Ovuga loves the green environment and continues gardening as a hobby in his backyard.

As a researcher, Dr. Ovuga has supported and mentored one of his sons, Dr. Alexander Bombom to pursue research in agricultural genetics and biotechnology with promising results. Dr. Ovuga is humble, polite and has been described as honest and “soft-spoken” by his colleagues and students. Dr. Ovuga loves country music, jazz, and Lingala songs of the sixties to eighties.

GIVING HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE

I want to present to this fora a true African Child who despite being an orphan while still attending primary school, struggled through life in spite of hardships, God helping him through hard work, perseverance and determination, was able to pass through all the corners of education from where his parents left him in Primary 4, he was able to pass through the four walls of a tertiary institution and is today a celebrated Professor of Urban and Regional Planning.

Professor Felix Aromo Ilesanmi was born on Sunday 24th September 1961 in Supare – Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria to late Mr William Ilesanmi and late Mrs Esther Ilesanmi. He attended the St. James’ Anglican Primary School, Supare – Akoko and Ajuwa Grammar School, Okeagbe – Akoko before enrolling for the National and Higher National Diplomas in Architecture in the Ondo State Polytechnic, Owo.
On completion of the HND Architecture programme in 1986, he was mobilized for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and sent to the defunct Gongola State (now Adamawa and Taraba State), where he was sent to the Federal University of Technology Yola for his one year mandatory service.

On completion of the Mandatory Service year in September 1987, he was retained by the Management of the FUTY on a full time employment as an Architectural Technologist II where he accepted the offer and formally assumed duty in the Department of Technology Education. This appointment marked the beginning of the sojourn of this erudite young scholar, Ilesanmi Felix Aromo through the ranks of the technical and academic cadres of the Federal University of Technology Yola (now Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH)).

Ilesanmi had Grade One in the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) he took in 1980; an Upper Credit in his National Diploma (ND) Architecture in 1983; Registered as a Draughtsman Category ‘A’ in 1983 and obtained the Upper Credit in his Higher National Diploma (HND) Architecture in 1986. In his quest for knowledge, Ilesanmi digressed into the Post Graduate Diploma in Technical Education (PGDTE) in the University of Jos in 1990. He obtained a Distinction in the programme. He also obtained a Distinction in the Post Graduate Diploma in Urban and Regional Planning (PGDURP) he enrolled for in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology in 1992. He was thereafter admitted into the Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) and Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Degree in the same University which he finished in 1995 and 2002 respectively. Ilesanmi is now a Member of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (MNITP), a Registered Town Planner (RTP) and a Member of the Nigerian Environmental Society (MNES).

The work-life of Professor Ilesanmi started as a Printer with the Ajuwa Press, Ajuwa Grammar School Okeagbe on June 23rd 1980, just 3 days after he completed his WASCE. He was literarily unemployed for 2 days! By October 1980 when the WASCE results were released, he was also employed in the same school as a class teacher. He combined both portfolios until he resigned to undertake the National Diploma Architecture in 1981. While in the Polytechnic, the young Ilesanmi opened a printing press in his hostel (Repent Ye Printers, Hall D Room 14.The Polytechnic, Owo [Now Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo]), the proceeds of which bought the meal tickets for his roommate and himself. This is not unconnected with the fact that the young Ilesanmi, having lost his father while in Primary Two, and his mother while in Primary Four, lived as a complete orphan on self sponsorship except for the secondary education intervention of his uncle late Mr Yisa Obe. Apart from the various political manifestoes and stationeries he printed for his colleagues then, he published the Owo Polytechnic Surveying Students’ Association Magazine titled: The Theodolite in 1982. He was also a part-time printer with ‘His Mercy Printers, Owo’ while in that Polytechnic.
Although Ilesanmi joined the services of MAUTECH, Yola as a Technologist, his scholarship was encouraged by successive administrations which granted him study fellowships to obtain two PGD’s, MURP and the Ph.D. He was therefore converted from the technical to the academic cadre after completing his Masters Degree. He steadily grew from Lecturer II in 1995 to Lecturer I in 1997, Senior Lecturer in 2000, Associate Professor in 2003 and Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in 2008. He has served in over 100 committees and administrative positions in the University including Head of Department (2003-2009), Acting Dean (2003-2005), Dean (2015-Date), Member University Governing Council (2005-2007), Chairman Committees on Inclusion of Identifiers to Students Identification Numbers; Academic Staff Auditing; Compendium of Senate Decisions; Mode of Study of Physically Challenged Students; Academic Core Mapping; Financial, Admission Fraud and Plagiarism Investigation Panels etc. He has supervised over 80 B. Tech., 10 Diploma, 2 PGD, 22 MURP candidates and with 2 PhD candidates now. He has participated in the accreditation visits and now external examiner to 3 Universities and a Visiting Professor to the Urban and Regional planning in the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. He has attended and presented papers in both local and international conferences.

Midlands State University embrace Digital Story Telling

Online media has made journalism practice a paperless profession as most journalist work from their computer, from data seeking and gathering until importation, especially considering that publication are either shutting down or sacking employees.

The media practitioners are increasingly becoming jobless in this economically crippled country, Zimbabwe. It is only freelance journalist with proficient online media skills able to withhold and practice their Fourth Estate power despite challenges.

The need to equip media practitioners with computer and Internet proficiency skills has undoubtedly effected in change of university curriculums, to better equip students with relevant and current professional skills.

This year the Midlands State University (MSU) has reintroduced a module in Internet and Cyber publishing after Media and Society Studies student’s inaugural participation in an online reporting training by Mobile Community Zimbabwe (MCZ).

The training which commenced for three months, May-August 2015, equipped the University’s media undergraduates with broadcasting skills that include story gathering, interviewing sources, video shooting and editing, and use of social media platforms like You Tube and Sound Cloud.

“In my capacity as the resident mentor for our 15 students who took part in MCZ 2015, I can say it was a tremendous experience for us. It was eye-opening for myself and the students in the Department of Media and Society studies”, said Ozwel Ureka, MSU lecture.

He added: “The fact that we won the Best Journalism Faculty award, our student Ketty Nyoni won the Best video award and another student of ours, Takudzwa Zuze had his video voted among the best 5 shows how seriously we took this project…. It fits into our vision of creating rounded media practitioners who have cutting edge skills as well as a critical mind”.

MCZ is a Free Press Unlimited project that gives ambitious young Zimbabweans a voice and a platform to share and exchange information through mobile phones, video and social media. The trainees used Story Maker App on Android-enabled smart phones to equip young Zimbabweans from across the country with skills to use their devices to tell compelling stories about themselves and their communities.

From 15 MCZ trainees from MSU, only 10 graduated. Other participants were from National University of Science and Technology and professional journalist from different Media Houses.

Currently the MSC digital story telling graduates are training the rest of the Media department students with Internet and storytelling skills acquired.

After leading nearly 50 Zimbabweans-young professionals, civil society workers, freelancers, bloggers, and budding media producers— through a week-long visual storytelling course, SWN mentored trainees for several months while they produced over 200 video reports published on the MCZ website and Youtube.

“MSU is improving the curriculum to better the education of an African Child in his or her mother land”, said Faith Moyo a media student from MSU.

 

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Bathabile Dlamini

University of Ibadan’s School of Business (UISB)

NAME: UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

CITY/COUNTRY: IBADAN/NIGERIA

WEBSITE: http://www.ui.edu.ng

The dream of establishing a School of Business, with a vision to be a world class school of business promoting creative, innovative, entrepreneurial and economic empowerment of business communities in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, at the University of Ibadan recently became a reality after about 8 years of planning and preparation by successive Administrations of the University. The formal inauguration of the governing board of the UISB took place at the Sheraton Hotel, Lagos on 14 August, 2013. The Chairman of the Governing board, Prof Ariyo highlighted key programs that are intended to be offered by the school and these include:

• Executive MBA
• Regular MBA
• Short courses
• Customized workshops
• Consultancy (Offsite and in-plant)
• Research

 

Approximately two years later, the National Universities Commission (a body that defines Minimum Academic Standards, accredit degrees and other academic awards, ensures that quality is maintained within the academic programmes, among many other functions) formally gave its nod for the establishment of the University of Ibadan School of Business (UISB).

In a letter of 9 September, 2015 coded NUC/FAS/AS/FOI/VOL. 11/145 signed by the Commission’s Director of Standards, Dr. G. Kumo, the approval was sequel to the recent resource evaluation visit carried out by a panel of experts to the institution’s proposed School of Business with a view to assessing the human and material resources available for its establishment in a statement by the University’s Director of Public Communication, Mr. Olatunji Oladejo. The letter reads in part, ” I am directed to inform you that the Management Committee during its 460th meeting held on Wednesday, 9 September, 2015 considered and approved the establishment of the School of Business to be situated on the campus of the University to run Executive MBA with specialization in the under listed (Telecommunication, Agribusiness, Oil and Gas, effective from the 2015/2016 Academic Session.”

 

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Adewole, speaking through the School’s pioneer Director, Prof. Adenike Osofisan expressed delight and satisfaction with the approval and thanked the Commission for its expeditious action on the process for the accreditation.

Sources:

http://ui.edu.ng/news/nuc-approves-ui-school-of-business

http://nuc.edu.ng/about-us/

http://advance.ui.edu.ng/news21.php

http://dailypost.ng/2015/09/12/nuc-approves-university-of-ibadans-new-school-of-business/

Université de Dschang (UDS) : Fer de lance dans l’utilisation de l’internet des Universités Camerounaise

Nul ne peut nier l’apport qu’a les outils des Nouvelles Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (NTIC) dans la campagne de visibilité des PMEs, institutions d’enseignement supérieur notamment les universités, les acteurs pour le développement, les privées et même des individus. Cette dernière induit une augmentation de la notoriété de l’organisme concerné auprès des internautes ou la communauté mondiale.

L’Université de Dschang (UDS) dans son optique de promouvoir leurs activités et actions afin de bénéficier des divers avantages qui s’y prête, infime qu’elle soit, à réussi à copté la place de premier université de la zone CEMAC en générale et Cameroun en particulier au sein d groupe de recherche Cybermetrics Lab il y a quelque mois de cela (Juillet 2015).

Mais pourquoi l’UDS et non pas un autre ? D’entre de jeu, Cybermetrics Lab est un groupe de recherche du conseil supérieur espagnole de la recherche scientifique qui a pour principaux indicateurs la qualité et l’impact de la présence des institutions universitaires sur internet. De ce fait, L’érection de l’UDS à ce rang est due à sa présence sur internet, notamment l’actualisation régulière des informations académiques et d’actualités sur son site officiel, et l’interaction avec les communautés virtuelles. Selon le chef de service de l’Information et des Conférences à l’université de Dschang, Alexandre Djimeli, le site web de l’UDS «reçoit 1500 à 2000 visites par jour». «Le nombre de liens partant de notre site ou y renvoyant est de plus en plus important. L’accès aux cours, aux programmes de formation, aux concours au marchés publics et emplois du temps est un gage de notre sérieux», a-t-il indiqué dans le quotidien national, édition du mercredi, 09 septembre 2015…

L’informatique a eu à prendre une courbe ascendante durant l’ère des années 2000 dans le monde et son utilisation impacte tous les divers secteurs d’activités rencontrer dans le monde et même dans la technologie mobile. Elle sert de base de données, de support d’information, de bibliothèque virtuelle, de médiatisation on-site et online (Toi qui lis ceci en sait quelque chose forcement) pour ne citer que cela. Du coup, Ce n’ai guerre un point à négliger pour tous.

L’éducation en Afrique croit au fil du temps et la capacité d’accueil par université par nations et par zone ne cesse de se doubler à chaque nouvelle année. Alors, qu’attendons-nous pour faire des outils des NTIC un « Garde-Fur » de nos actions, formation et informations afin que la pérennisation des données relatives à la bonne marche et gouvernance de nos universités Africaines soit plus percu comme un pôle de REFERENCE et d’EXEMPLE à suivre…. Alors, membres de l’Association des Universités Africaines (AUA), “Lift the visibility, respect and notoriety of your institution via a conducive, remote and day in day out utilization of ICT tools just as your brotherhood UDS in #Cameroon does. The beginning are already hard and asks much but it’s the finality that counts and shall remain for ages ahead upcoming…”

University of Dschang, Cameroon, African University Day 2015 #AUDAY2015

Reported by: Ghislain BAPPA SE Marc… Online SMR team for the AUDAY2015

Ahmadu Bello University- The Pride of Africa

Ahmadu Bello University is the largest university in Nigeria founded on October 4, 1962 in Zaria as the University of Northern Nigeria.  It  began full operation in 1962, on the cites of these educational institutions: the defunct Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, founded in 1955; the Clerical Training Centre, Kongo, founded in 1957; the Samaru Agricultural Research Station, established in  1924, and the Shika Livestock Farm, started in 1928.

The University was named after SirAhmadu Bello (1901-1966), “the Sardauna of Sokoto” and the Premier of Northern Nigeria. As the first Chancellor of the’ University, Sir Ahmadu Bello performed its Opening Ceremony on the 4th of October, 1962.

In 1975, the University was taken over by the Federal Government through a Decree (the Ahmadu Bello University [Transitional] Provisions Decree of 1975), thus becoming a Federal University.

ABU as popularly called was established to impart knowledge and learning to men and women of all races without distinction on the grounds of race, religious or political beliefs. The founding fathers expected the University to aspire to the highest international ideals of scholarship and to provide learning of a standard required and expected of a university of the highest standing while reflecting the needs, the traditions, and the social and intellectual heritage of the society in which it is located. The University was taken over by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1975 and has since then assumed a national mandate although its ties with the 19 states created out of the former Northern Region remain very strong.

In the over forty years of its existence, the ABU has grown to become the largest, and the most influential and diverse university in Nigeria. Consisting of eighty-two (82) Academic Departments, twelve (12) Faculties, and twelve (12) Research Institutes and Specialized Centres, the University offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in such diverse fields as Agriculture, Public and Business Administration, Engineering, Environmental Design, Education, Biological and Physical Sciences, Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Humanities, Law and Social Sciences. The university has two campuses located on 7,000 hectares of land.

Student enrolment currently stands at 35,000 with 20% at the postgraduate level. Staff strength stands at 1, 400 academic staff, 1, 985 non-academic senior staff and 4,143 junior staff. A common feature of both the staff and student population is the wide variety of social, cultural, religious and economic backgrounds that they represent. One unique feature of the University, as opposed to any other Institution of its type in Nigeria, is that it has both staff and students from all parts of the country and from neighboring countries. This mix has created an open society in which people from all backgrounds are able to live. This has been one of the major strengths of the University. At a time when Nigeria and indeed the world is faced with divisions and tensions, the experience of open, multi-religious, multi-faith and multi-cultural dialogue and cohabitation which ABU possesses, is one which the University is anxious to retain and build upon.

The University’s mission, as contained in its Strategic Plan, is “to advance the frontiers of learning and break new grounds, through teaching, research and dissemination of knowledge of the highest quality; to establish and foster national and international integration through the development and the promotion of African traditions and cultures; to serve as a model and conscience of the society; to produce high-level human power and enhance capacity-building through training and retraining, in order to meet the needs and challenges of the 21st century”.

Blessing Ogunleye (Nigeria)

National University of Science and Technology (NUST) solar program

A TOTAL of 0,25 megawatts MW of photovoltaic electricity production (Solar energy) is set to be installed at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) as a means to generate power to the campus and addition to the energy exploitation in the Zimbabwe,thereby reduce electricity bills.
The Technopark department at NUST director Dr Eliton Mthethwa said the project which is still on the pipeline will generate power to Nust campus as the Sub Saharan region if well vested with sunlight during the day.
“This project will generate power to the campus and we are trying to extend it so that it reaches the student‘s residential areas and the clinic, “said Dr Mthethwa.
Installing solar power is an addition of the counrty’s power exploitation method and will reduce electricity bills the institution is facing.
“Installing solar power will reduce our costs that we have to pay to ZImbabwe Eletricity Supply Authority (Zesa) and currently they are charging us at 13c pkh,” said Dr Mthethwa.
He said Nust is the one of the Biggest and oldest Tertiary institution which renders it difficult to manage electricity usage resulting to forking out large sums of money to pay zesa bills from the institution. The primary objective of installing the plant is to demonstrate technological and financial viability by the institution but not to be independent from ZESA.
“Solar power is a natural resource,a cheaper commodity every African can rely on to reducing large sums of bills paid and load-shading. It will enable the institution to open up other doors to start or finish projects which have been stopped due to financial constraints,” said Dr Mthethwa.

The Institute of Higher learning has suspended many projects including the Construction of a Library facility on campus for decades.
He said the idea to install solar power plant at the institution was greatly considered after the recent kariba disaster where water levels are are reducing at enormously following power cuts which have battered the whole nation in the process.
“We consider this a very positive move which is expected to lift the performance of production within the institution,”said Mthethwa.
He said nowadays both secondary and tertiary schools are dependent on modern technology. Electronic gadgets such as projectors, computers and internet have remained the top priority if there has to be sustainable education system.
“We don’t want a situation where work is halted after unconditional power cuts with both lecturers and students can’t operate because computers are shut down,”
“Solar power will run the institution in full capacity without abruptly switching off, stalling the working process. We have individuals coming during the evening classes who have complained of having lost unrecoverable time after lectures would have been stopped due to series of power cuts going on,” .
“The move is there to empower Nust and its stakeholders to ensure sustainability within a community,” said Mthethwa.
He said the institution is still waiting for a license approval from the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) which will be approved after environmental assessment report by environmental management agency (EMA).
“We hope to get the license early next year(2016) specifically January so that we start working into the project which will not take us more than 3 months to finish,” he said
He said they hope to be power independent by june2016.The plant will be installed about 1 kilometer from the nearest building wielding large space of land which will allow the institution to increase its solar power plant when needed.
“We are going to import the plant and install, and it will require small labour from the technical partners,”
Dr Mthethwa said there has been doing parallel activities to raise money, and as well seeking for financial funding towards the project.
Currently the country is producing electricity at the lowest power of about 985 MW, dropping from the national power demand of 1200 MW. The country requires about 2200 MW to run normally.