Unam southern campus gets geosciences department

University of Namibia (Unam) vice chancellor Kenneth Matengu says the university’s southern campus is making deliberate strides to be at the centre of development.

Matengu said this last week at an appreciation dinner for stakeholders in the //Kharas region supporting the southern campus.

He also announced the approval of N$60 million in funding from the National Planning Commission for the construction of a geosciences building at Unam’s southern campus.

The building will house specialised laboratories to service the oil and gas, hydrology and engineering industries.

“We have a greater vision for the south, and we are very aware of the natural endowments in the south: oil and gas, hydrogen, zinc, diamonds and good soil that just lacks water,” he said.

During his state of the university address that formed part of the southern campus’ weeklong 10-year anniversary, Matengu raised concerns over schoolchildren’s poor performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects in the Hardap, //Kharas and Omaheke regions.

He said statistics for the last five years indicate that out of 9 000 applications received, only 2 500 students were admitted to the Unam Southern Campus.

“I saw the statistics last night for the last 10 years in the three regions south of Windhoek and south-east. The performance in Stem subjects is very bad, and if you don’t have good performance there, it means you cannot get into the hydrogen sector, and you cannot get into oil and gas. So this is something that requires discussion and action.

“The reason why there is low participation in higher education in some sectors of the economy, even in green hydrogen, is this: It is not that the region is marginalised, but the number of people who would qualify is low, and it needs to be addressed,” the vice chancellor said.

The university inaugurated the Rhino-Halliburton Technology Centre at its southern campus at Keetmanshoop on Thursday.

The centre is equipped with cutting-edge hardware provided by Rhino Resources worth N$3.5 million, and a comprehensive N$129 million three-year software bundle, courtesy of Halliburton.

“The state-of-the-art facility will improve research and practical training in petroleum geology, engineering geology, geophysics, and data analysis. The lab is equipped with 15 supercomputers.

“This computing power will allow Unam researchers and students to interpret diverse petroleum data, calculate volumes, produce maps, and develop strategies to generate hydrocarbon exploration targeting or maximise hydrocarbon exploration,” Matengu said.

Southern campus director Seth Eiseb said a proposal for a multipurpose resource centre had been submitted to the Unam Foundation to source funding.

“Stakeholders, with your continued support, we will make the campus a catalyst for individual and regional prosperity with national and international impact,” he said.

Unam’s southern campus currently offers courses in education, economics, management, the humanities, social sciences, nursing and geosciences.

The university is ranked 24th out of 2 500 universities in Africa.

It has thus far produced 3 000 research papers.