Strike looming at the National University of Science and Technology

Staff at one of the leading universities in Zimbabwe, the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), located in Bulawayo, are set to start with a strike on 14 December. The lecturers are not happy with how the institution is being run and cited mismanagement and the withdrawal of developmental support for staff as some of their reasons.

The National University of Science and Technology Educators Association (NUSTEDA) has served the university with a notice of their intention to strike.

A part of the letter written by the president of NUSTEDA, Alois Muzvuwe, reads: “NUST lecturers are not pleased that none of their grievances from the 2017-18 academic year have been addressed to date.

“The grievances resulted in a strike against gross mismanagement in February 2018 during which the Honourable Minister [of Higher and Tertiary Education] [Amon] Murwira promised us that NUST would soon get a new vice-chancellor who was going to address these grievances. To the contrary, the situation at NUST has gone from bad to worse. There is still an unhealthy and unsafe teaching and learning environment.”

He continued: “The shortage of teaching and learning equipment that NUST lecturers complained about in the 2017-18 academic year has been exacerbated by the need for students to learn online due to the challenges imposed by COVID-19.

“The majority of the lecturers at NUST do not have university-provided laptops and the few who were lucky to be given [these] are in possession of outdated laptops that consistently crash and freeze. Internet services at NUST are below par, with lecturers who have tried to teach online being embarrassed by the loss of connectivity during the attempted online lectures.”

Following the publication of the letter, several current and former students of the university echoed the allegations of mismanagement, stating that the university administration is failing to provide adequate resources for students and lecturers at the university, including enough computers and Wi-Fi and that there is a lack of communication from the university by means of its website and the student portals.

Despite hiking tuition fees by over 50% earlier this year, service delivery remains poor with frequent interruptions in power and water supply.

Student internships affected

Second-year students at NUST have not been learning for close to a year now. Zira Migioni, a second-year student at the institution, spoke to University World News: “We have been completely forgotten and haven’t been learning for the past 11 months. It’s like we made a mistake by going to the school [university]. Like we’re being punished for it,” said Migioni.

At every year level, students are experiencing challenges. First years, who recently started studying, have not been able to register and do not have university identity cards.

Students going for attachment, which is similar to participating in an internship or service learning, do not have their study results, which they need to look for placement. Their internships were supposed to commence in August.

A third-year student who spoke to University World News but chose to remain anonymous said: “This is actually the norm; results are always published late. It wasn’t a problem while [we were] on campus, but it’s proving to be a challenge now because it is difficult to look for attachment [an internship] without second-year results. The whole admin is a circus. Same issues year in, year out.”

“Graduates are also failing to get certificates amid complaints that their transcripts are delivered late (currently, students who graduated in October 2020 haven’t received their transcripts). Engaging the admin has proved to be futile. Calls are not answered and when the students go to campus, they are tossed from office to office without help,” said the third-year student.

University World News also spoke to the university's student representative council president, Innocent Takudzwa Dombo.

“It’s unfortunate that this [poor service] has become a habit at this university. We feel neglected by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education. The university has committed lecturers, who continue to face very difficult circumstances due to the lack of financial support. The students continue to suffer and it’s heartbreaking. We hope the ministry will, even if it is for one moment, direct its attention to institutions located in our Matebeleland region, NUST in particular,” said Dombo.

The turmoil within the education sector continues to affect students. Nine students were arrested at Morgan Zintec Teachers College in Harare on 7 December after they allegedly objected to the news that the college wants them to repeat their studies in 2021.