Botho University launches sustainable growth strategy
Staff Writer | Friday November 23, 2018 13:02
The event started with a tour of the university’s state-of-the-art facility.
The university was established 21 years ago under the name NIIT College, but transformed to current status five years ago and Vice Chancellor (VC) Sheela Raja Ram said they had to earn their stripes. She said it had been a challenging journey from a single discipline college to a multi-discipline university and promised more is to come including PHD level.
Botho University started off as a computer studies college, but has over the years grown into a university with presence in four countries.
There are two campuses in Botswana, one in Lesotho another in Namibia while in Eswathini the campus is in the early stages of being set up.
The VC revealed that they were compliant with requirements of all the countries therefore they could walk with their heads held high.
Furthermore, Raja Ram said the university, being a Botswana grown institution producing Botswana grown programmes and exporting them to the region, allows them to grow the Botswana staff to take up senior positions in the region.
“We are building a legacy of good quality private education in Botswana that will last for over 100 years to come,” she confidently predicted.
Presenting their latest strategy, Pro VC Ananth Ram said their previous strategy of 2013-2017 had gone through a difficult time due to economic recession, water and power shortages faced by the country during the period.
This time around with the realisation of the critical nature of access to education, the college has come up with a strategy with a difference according to Ram.
To come up with this strategy, he said they sat down with different stakeholders such as staff members, student representatives, industry players and the community. This he said resulted in a sustainable growth model guided by integrity, excellence, inclusiveness and financial viability.
To implement the strategy, which has been going on for the past 11 months, Ram revealed that they would increase the breadth and depth of their programmes to meet current and future needs of the industry.
The university would further widen presence across Africa while continuing to develop existing campuses.
Furthermore, they would adhere to strict compliance with relevant quality management standards and quality requirements.
The college will also develop staff and stakeholders to be competent, motivated and have a customer centric mind set and not discriminate.
Ram further promised they would develop competent and entrepreneurial students as well as increase alumni and industry engagement.
The institution further intends to cut cost and reduce carbon foot print through interventions such as replacing all lights with LED lights to cut power consumption among others.
In a bid to grow the impact of their research, which draws from partnerships with reputable universities and to share information in their repository, Ram appealed to the media for assistance in disseminating the information.