Thursday 22nd March
We set our alarm clock, and gave ourselves an hour to get to Mr. Kala’s house. A 20 minute hitched ride to the University of Zimbabwe, and then a 40 minute walk from there, and we arrived 5 minutes late, but apparently 55 minutes early (must have been a mix up in the times). Nonetheless, we sat down with Mr Kala, and proceeded to chat with him for nearly 3vhours. It was almost 1pm before we left.
Mr Kala (born in Zimbabwe) has more than a 50 year history of being involved in educationin Zimbabwe. From headmaster, to teacher, to sitting on the board of the ZOU – he has had his fingers in almost all pots, except for dirty ones. As a board member of ZOU, he gave us a wonderful historical account of the growth of ZOU. He explained that the “open” model combines both teaching and distance learning, and the university has 10 offices all around Zimbabwe, one in each of the provinces. ZOU is currently the largest university in Zimbabwe and is growing, with roughly 18,000 students at the moment. The courses are flexible, internationally accredited and modularized so that they can tailor each course to the individual – taking into account their backgrounds, and intended direction of study. Their model is different from that of UNISA, in that UNISA was designed to be a “correspondence learning programme”, while ZOU was an “open learning”, combining teaching and distance learning. Apparently UNISA has evolved a bit over the years, but did not begin with the same intention and mission as ZOU, so is therefore still a bit different.
After our talk, we were dropped at the University of Zimbabwe, where we headed straight for the Linguistics department. Why? I’ll ask Kristen to explain.
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Earlier in the week we spoke to the Political Science department administrator and I asked whether students struggled with similar things to the first year students at UCT – picking out an argument in an academic text, writing a thesis statement and coherent argument, etc. She said that it wasn’t a very big issue here because all students take a Communication Skills course in the Linguistics department that teaches these skills to students in the first year. All students! It sounded like the sort of program that we set up at UCT in the Politics Department last year. So, I had to go check out it out!
We finally found our way to the linguistics department, which is downstairs at basement level (no wonder we had a little trouble) and waited for the staff to come back from lunch. When they did, I explained my experience at UCT and desire to learn about their program. I chatted with one of the secretaries until the chair of the Linguistics department returned and called a colleague to set us up with a meeting with the Coordinator of the Communication Skills department…. So off we were to Mr.Mutambwa’s office.
We sat down with one of the most passionate and enthusiastic people that we’ve met at the University of Zimbabwe (which is saying a lot because most people we met were incredibly passionate about their work). He is also forward-thinking in his approach to education. He explained that he worked to set up the Communication Skills program in about 2005 and despite struggles for resources to set it up (fights with the Vice Chancellor and other lecturers), the program now has 10 different streams – one for each of the faculties at UZ and is tailored specifically to the needs of each faculty -- and 2 courses in each stream. Students have a Communication Skills for Academic Purposes course in the first semester, which does everything from orient them to university life, to teaching academic reading and writing, and research skills. The second course is Communication Skills for Professional Purposes, which teaches communication theory (intercultural, interpersonal, etc – stuff I learned majoring in Communication in undergrad) cover letter writing, interviewing, presenting yourself in a professional context. Although they don’t have a Communication department for students to major in Communication Studies, the university recognizes that these skills are important enough to create the courses and make them compulsory. Mr. Mutambwa and I were definitely on the same page in terms of what skills students need in order to be successful in university and productive citizens. The University of Zimbabwe believes in his vision, too. Maybe we should chat with Max Price (Vice Chancellor of UCT) when we return to Cape Town.
Mr. Mutambwa also mentioned that other Zimbabwean universities are seeking to create these programs, including NUST – the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo based on the model set up by UZ. He also said that the person setting it up at NUST may need a coordinator or few lecturers for the program and suggested we get in touch. Maybe Leen and I can move to Bulawayo? Who knows.
After our meeting, Mr. Mutambwa walked us back to the main office and gave us electronic copies of the course outlines for all of the Communication Skills courses and left us with a pretty thick document on Life Skills that is used in his course.
We set our alarm clock, and gave ourselves an hour to get to Mr. Kala’s house. A 20 minute hitched ride to the University of Zimbabwe, and then a 40 minute walk from there, and we arrived 5 minutes late, but apparently 55 minutes early (must have been a mix up in the times). Nonetheless, we sat down with Mr Kala, and proceeded to chat with him for nearly 3vhours. It was almost 1pm before we left.
Mr Kala (born in Zimbabwe) has more than a 50 year history of being involved in educationin Zimbabwe. From headmaster, to teacher, to sitting on the board of the ZOU – he has had his fingers in almost all pots, except for dirty ones. As a board member of ZOU, he gave us a wonderful historical account of the growth of ZOU. He explained that the “open” model combines both teaching and distance learning, and the university has 10 offices all around Zimbabwe, one in each of the provinces. ZOU is currently the largest university in Zimbabwe and is growing, with roughly 18,000 students at the moment. The courses are flexible, internationally accredited and modularized so that they can tailor each course to the individual – taking into account their backgrounds, and intended direction of study. Their model is different from that of UNISA, in that UNISA was designed to be a “correspondence learning programme”, while ZOU was an “open learning”, combining teaching and distance learning. Apparently UNISA has evolved a bit over the years, but did not begin with the same intention and mission as ZOU, so is therefore still a bit different.
After our talk, we were dropped at the University of Zimbabwe, where we headed straight for the Linguistics department. Why? I’ll ask Kristen to explain.
-------------------------------------------------
Earlier in the week we spoke to the Political Science department administrator and I asked whether students struggled with similar things to the first year students at UCT – picking out an argument in an academic text, writing a thesis statement and coherent argument, etc. She said that it wasn’t a very big issue here because all students take a Communication Skills course in the Linguistics department that teaches these skills to students in the first year. All students! It sounded like the sort of program that we set up at UCT in the Politics Department last year. So, I had to go check out it out!
We finally found our way to the linguistics department, which is downstairs at basement level (no wonder we had a little trouble) and waited for the staff to come back from lunch. When they did, I explained my experience at UCT and desire to learn about their program. I chatted with one of the secretaries until the chair of the Linguistics department returned and called a colleague to set us up with a meeting with the Coordinator of the Communication Skills department…. So off we were to Mr.Mutambwa’s office.
We sat down with one of the most passionate and enthusiastic people that we’ve met at the University of Zimbabwe (which is saying a lot because most people we met were incredibly passionate about their work). He is also forward-thinking in his approach to education. He explained that he worked to set up the Communication Skills program in about 2005 and despite struggles for resources to set it up (fights with the Vice Chancellor and other lecturers), the program now has 10 different streams – one for each of the faculties at UZ and is tailored specifically to the needs of each faculty -- and 2 courses in each stream. Students have a Communication Skills for Academic Purposes course in the first semester, which does everything from orient them to university life, to teaching academic reading and writing, and research skills. The second course is Communication Skills for Professional Purposes, which teaches communication theory (intercultural, interpersonal, etc – stuff I learned majoring in Communication in undergrad) cover letter writing, interviewing, presenting yourself in a professional context. Although they don’t have a Communication department for students to major in Communication Studies, the university recognizes that these skills are important enough to create the courses and make them compulsory. Mr. Mutambwa and I were definitely on the same page in terms of what skills students need in order to be successful in university and productive citizens. The University of Zimbabwe believes in his vision, too. Maybe we should chat with Max Price (Vice Chancellor of UCT) when we return to Cape Town.
Mr. Mutambwa also mentioned that other Zimbabwean universities are seeking to create these programs, including NUST – the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo based on the model set up by UZ. He also said that the person setting it up at NUST may need a coordinator or few lecturers for the program and suggested we get in touch. Maybe Leen and I can move to Bulawayo? Who knows.
After our meeting, Mr. Mutambwa walked us back to the main office and gave us electronic copies of the course outlines for all of the Communication Skills courses and left us with a pretty thick document on Life Skills that is used in his course.
Glad to hear education in Zim is gradually getting back to its feet again.
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