Harare (New Ziana) -The Zimbabwe Open University is facing an exodus of staff with at least 48 leaving the institution this year alone, an official has said.
ZOU vice chancellor Paul Gundani said this at the 21st graduation ceremony last week where students from seven faculties graduated, with women constituting 65 percent of the graduants.
Gundani said the university was facing a number of challenges among them a spate of resignations by senior staff members and high costs of data, which is making it difficult for students to do online learning.
“This year alone, your Excellency and Chancellor, we lost 48 members of staff through resignations and among those are five full professors, five senior lecturers, eleven lecturers, one director, six very experienced technical staff in our ICT engineering division. Critical skills indeed in the teaching and learning,” he said.
He said the high cost of data and connectivity as well as the acquisition of the tools of the trade for both staff and students has impeded the delivery of effective online teaching and learning.
Gundani said the institution continues to seek solutions to these challenges, adding they were planning to set up a multi-purpose hall which they expect to be fully functional by next year.
“The university through the parent Ministry has since presented a bid for the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) funding for 2025 so that we can resume the project. I am happy to say that after the presentation of the National Budget by the Minister of Finance we have been allocated some funds and we look forward to their utilisation,” he said.
He said the 10 000 seater multi-purpose hall project is of national importance as it has the capacity to host essential activities not only for ZOU, but also for other state and non-state business institutions.
New Ziana
