MEDIA STUDIES DEGREE SUSPENDED AT MIDLANDS UNIVERSITY

Students and lecturers should not panic following the suspension of the Media and Society Studies degree at the Midlands State University (MSU) last week by the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) as Government is working on modalities to address their plight.

ZIMCHE last week started implementing the Minimum Bodies of Knowledge and Skills (MBK/s) that will see some programmes at universities being changed or scrapped.

In an interview yesterday, Higher and Tertiary Education permanent secretary, Professor Fanuel Tagwira said Government was working on modalities to find a solution. Prof Tagwira said Government will soon issue a comprehensive statement.

“There is no need to panic for the affected learners and lecturers, Government is fully aware of your plight and is working on modalities to come up with a solution. I’m travelling to Gweru to meet MSU vice Chancellor Professor Muzvidziwa tomorrow (today) to deliberate on the issues,” he said.

Government in a quality assurance standards exercise last year indicated that at least 20 programmes at various universities would be scrapped since they were producing graduates who do not have innovative skills.

The quality assurance standards exercise was done as a requirement for the Zimbabwe National Qualifications Framework under Statutory Instrument (SI) 133 of 2019.

ZIMCHE has come up with the MBK/s that prescribes the basic knowledge and skills that a graduate should possess when they study towards a degree.

MBK/s represent standardisation of the curricula in Higher Education institutions in the country. The MBK/s are tools for facilitating equivalence and comparability of qualifications offered by Higher Education institutions in Zimbabwe. Herald

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