UNAM and NUST expand cooperation to share costs and access more international funding

Namibia’s two government universities, Namibia University of Science and Technology and the University of Namibia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding this week to coordinate and align certain functions and services between the two tertiary educational institutions.

The parameters of this Memorandum vary in scope and levels of implementation. It will be at discipline level- computer science, engineering, medicine; at service provision level – libraries and science laboratories; and at institutional level – research cooperation and quality assurance.

Acting Vice-Chancellor of the science and technology university, Dr Andrew Niikondo said “In some instances, the national and international funding agencies encourage strong partnerships among local universities as evidence of economic collaboration to eliminate unneeded expenditures and achieve economies of scale and cost savings. In these cases, our collaboration objectives are to reduce duplication and redundancy, gain access to NSFAF funding, recruit international students, engage in advanced research, and utilise high-cost facilities.”

The Memorandum of Understanding is the further formal step to enable the two universities to share resources and to sustain high-cost programmes and facilities, to strengthen constituent services, and to penetrate new markets.

The two institutions already have collaboration agreements in some operational areas and in some academic disciplines.

“We also have collaboration related to innovation such as the partnership with the Namibia Business Innovation Institute in manufacturing of respirators and surgical masks. We encourage more projects in product development and market innovation,” said Prof Kenneth Matengu, the UNAM Vice-Chancellor.