Unam southern campus enrolment grows

ENROLMENT at the University of Namibia’s southern campus has this year increased to 414 first-year students, compared to 150 in 2014 when the campus had opened its doors.

Campus director, assistant pro-vice chancellor Erold Naomab, said at the commencement of the 2018 academic year at Keetmanshoop yesterday that the campus has 494 senior students, 384 of whom were full-time, bringing the total student population to 908, of whom 691 are full-time.

The rising enrolment figures were indicative of the competitiveness of the campus in the market, with new records being set every year, he noted.

The campus was also on track to reach a student population of more than 2 000 by 2020, and over 200 students are expected to graduate this year. This will be the first graduation for the Keetmanshoop campus.

Naomab said the construction of teaching facilities at the campus were expected to be completed this year, adding that this would also contribute to an increase in the enrolment figures next year.

Against this backdrop, Unam’s senate has approved the transformation of the department of geology into a school of geoscience, which is expected to be operational in 2019.

Naomab said government budget cuts and adjustments were happening at a time when the new campus required more capitalisation.

Despite the current economic conditions, there were increased expectations from students and staff, pushing the institution into challenging budgetary situations, limiting growth and expansion opportunities, and threatening its sustainability.

The assistant pro-vice chancellor highlighted a lack of appropriate student accommodation, as well as staff housing shortages as specific challenges the institution faced.

Also speaking at the event, //­Karas governor Lucia Basson urged the campus to purposefully discharge its critical social responsibility through community engagements.

“Universities do not exist in a vacuum, they exist within a particular social, economic, political and historical context, and are an integral part of the community in which they exist,” she stressed.

She said government was aware of the challenges the campus faced, stating that a “university can never be brought to perfection”.

Basson said economic challenges have negatively affected project implementation in the country, but government was optimistic about managing economic conditions with the limited resources at its disposal.