All that the three short paragraphs said was that Thapisa had: resigned six months after he joined the institution; confirmed the resignation; and previously been a senior staff member of the University of Botswana, where he had worked for 30 years. Having expected much more from the story regarding Thapisas situation, I found the brief account rather disappointing.
The rest of the story started: Sources close to Limkokwing paint a picture of an institution in turmoil and suggest that the high staff turnover is a result of disgruntlement. A few paragraphs later, it immediately became clear to me that the real purpose of the story was to use Thapisas resignation to highlight the perceived dubious status of the university. The story referred to the alleged preference of the University for recruiting staff by head-hunting instead of advertising; the junior-degree qualifications of a majority of its teaching staff; and the alleged reluctance of such staff to recruit better-qualified staff, lest the latter jeopardised their promotion prospects. As the climax to the largely unfavourable story, the writer threw in details of the hundreds of millions of pula that the government spends each year on sponsoring increasing numbers of students to study at the institution.
