BIUST struggles to accommodate students
Bonte Seepi | Thursday March 17, 2016 14:57
The manager of student campus and housing at BIUST, Wilson Mankangu, said BIUST has over 2,000 local and international students and they are facing a shortage of accommodation at the institution.
“BIUST has only managed to accommodate 1,156 students while some have been accommodated at the old Sekgoma Hospital in Serowe .We urge you to rent your houses to our students. Through that they will also learn your culture, norms and practices,” said Mankangu.
The community decried lack of funds to build houses for rent but suggested that BUIST join hands with them to construct the houses.
Obusitse Goepamang said that there is high unemployment in the village hence plot owners do not have money to develop their plots. He said the best way is for BIUST to develop those plots under certain agreements. Goepamang also suggested that the institution should introduce short-term courses or part-time courses to allow those who are interested to upgrade themselves.
The director of academic programmes at BIUST, Haniso Motlhabane said they will consider introducing part-time courses in the future after doing a research on it.
He also said that the intention of their meeting was to gather the needs of the people hence they will think about joining hands with the community to build houses for students in their plots.
Motlhabane asked the community to partner with the institution in transforming the economy of Botswana.
“BIUST wants to be a unique university so whatever we do is not for us but for the community.
We intend to solve certain problems in the community of Botswana starting with Palapye. We want to give the community of Palapye an opportunity to engage with us to make all this possible,” he said, urging parents to encourage their children to pursue science.
He said BIUST was established to be a driver of transformation of the economy because the government has realised that the country cannot depend solely on cattle and minerals alone.