The Chancellor of the Midlands State University, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has conferred degrees to close to 7000 graduands during the institution’s 23rd graduation ceremony held at the institution’s main campus in Gweru this Friday.
President Mnangagwa presided over the institution’s graduation ceremony which witnessed five graduates being awarded Doctor of Philosophy degrees, while one graduated with a first degree class posthumously after she died on the 2nd of September.
Of the total number who graduated this Friday, 3 519 are female, while 3 476 are male confirming the university’s strides towards ensuring gender parity in the academic field.
The ceremony witnessed a full house atmosphere as all graduands were afforded a chance to witness proceedings physically post COVID-19 induced restrictions.
The institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Victor Muzvidziwa took the opportunity to highlight some of the achievements the University has scored in enhancing beneficiation in line with government’s value addition thrust.
“Our faculty of Engineering and Geosciences has embarked on the manufacturing of prototypes of black granite beneficiation equipment through seed funding from our parent Ministry with the expectation that industrial scale black granite cutting, polishing and engraving machines will in future be manufactured from the industrial park. The faculty is also working with South African and Australian institutions on beneficiation of Zimbabwean lithium ores,” he said.
In line with the Education 5.0 model, the institution has also made strides in coming up with new companies aimed at addressing the needs of the community.
“Our commitment to the innovation ecosystem in its entirety has seen the birth of start-up companies namely, Culinary Delicacies, Nerd-iQ, Midlands Scientific, Real Lego Bricks and Herbicure. These start-ups cover application of Artificial Intelligence in managing business information and security, food and nutrition, plastic waste recycling. The start-ups are being incubated at the innovation Hub and are ready for scaling up industrial production levels,” said Professor Muzvidziwa.
The recently adopted Education 5.0 philosophy has seen most tertiary institutions producing graduates with an entrepreneurial mindset to solving societal problems.
