Research teams focus on the future � BUAN
Baboki Kayawe | Thursday September 21, 2017 15:57
This has manifested in communities not gaining much from higher learning institutions whose role, besides human resources development, is practical knowledge generation with utility to the society.
Deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs and research, Professor Rejoice Tsheko said the university has taken a move to strengthen research as evidenced by consented research themes as opposed to leaving academics to randomly choose research topics.
He added that unlike in the past, now departments come up with themes based on problems that the society is experiencing as discussed by the team.
He was speaking at the institution’s media briefing on the transformation to be a fully-fledged university.
“Our research is now informed by what is obtaining on the ground as opposed to individuals working on their own without a common goal.
The approach to research is that we are informed by documents such as the National Development Policy to see the laid out plans to develop the country, against prevailing problems,” Tsheko said.
He added that working in silos did not produce much of an impact and academics “should take the blame” for that approach.
Tsheko said research has potential not only to transform lives, but also create third stream income as the university is battling with funding.
He added that the university is also re-looking its research strategies and policies in order to produce beneficiary and impacting community projects. These include promoting partnerships, he said.
“At the moment, there are ongoing research projects in partnership with the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management, at the tune of P7 million.
All five of them are looking at how indigenous communities can use the environment in a friendly and sustainable ways, for instance one focuses on cowpeas production and there is another of forestry conservation and management,” he said.
The work started in 2013 and is due for completion this year. In the past three years, while a faculty under the University of Botswana, BUAN was getting around P120 million from which P2 million was channeled to research.
Now, as the institution transforms into a university, vice-chancellor Khumoetsile Mmolawa said they now need about P250 million to cover operational costs.
BUAN has a student population of 1,400, around three percent of which are international students.