Unam graduates 27 000 William J. Mbangula Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 08:00 Northern The University of Namibia (Unam) has so far produced 27 000 graduates in various fields since its inception 21 years ago. This was revealed by Unam vice-chancellor Lazarus Hangula during the graduation ceremony at Ongwe-diva last week. “This year alone a total of 2 518 students graduated from all campuses and from a total of 16 countries, including Namibia. Some of the students graduated with degrees in very specialised fields,” he said. During the graduation ceremony at Ongwe-diva at least 355 students, including from Botswana (2), Malawi (1), Nigeria (1), Zambia (5) and Zimbabwe (4), graduated. The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology has so far 260 students and 31 staff members lecturing in six degree programmes. “This year, the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology graduated 37 students nine of which are female. This figure is in addition to the 30 who graduated last year. So far, the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology in Ongwediva town has produced 67 professional engineers. In total this year, 1314 graduates were conferred with Bachelor Degrees and 784 with diplomas throughout the country. According to the vice-chancellor this year’s graduation ceremony was significant in the sense that an increased number of graduates received Master Degrees. Last year it was 53 but this year is 81. The Faculty of Economic and Management Science had the most qualifications (681) followed by Human Resources with 422. Nine doctoral candidates were conferred with degrees. In terms the infrastructure at the Faculty of Engineering and IT all the buildings, built at a cost of N$166 million, were completed in 2010 funded by the Namibian government. In March this year, Unam received assistance from the Government of India whereby the India Wing was created to house the Department of Mining Engineering, Computer Engineering and Information Resource Centre (Library). The Indian government donated more than 150 engineering books worth US$12,3 million. The Chinese government also donated N$10 million for library equipment. Apart from the chancellor of Unam, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, the occasion was also attended by high-profile people such as the vice-chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya, Professor Mabel Imbuga, and Professor Adebiyi Daramola, the vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in Nigeria.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:40:09 +0000