Midlands State University Bulawayo Campus

Midlands State University Bulawayo Campus – Details of Midlands State University (MSU) Bulawayo Campus

Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country’s Matabeleland. The city’s population is disputed; the 2012 census listed it at 653,337, while the Bulawayo City Councilclaimed it to be about 1.2 million. Bulawayo covers an area of about 1,707 square kilometres (659 sq mi) in the western part of the country, along the Matsh’ Amhlope River. Along with the capital Harare, Bulawayo is one of two cities in Zimbabwe that are also a province. See Also>> Midlands State University Intake .

The city sits on a plain that marks the Highveld of Zimbabwe and is close to the watershed between the Zambezi and Limpopo drainage basins. The land slopes gently downwards to the north and northwest. The southern side is hillier, and the land becomes more broken in the direction of the Matobo Hills to the south.

Bulawayo’s central business district (CBD) covers 5.4 square kilometres (2.1 sq mi) in the heart of the city, and is surrounded by numerous suburbs towards the outskirts. The majority of the city’s population belong to the Ndebele people, with minorities of Shona and other groups. Bulawayo is home to over a dozen colleges and universities, most notably the National University of Science and Technology. The Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, formerly the National Museum, is located in Bulawayo, and the city is in close proximity to popular tourist sites like Matobo National Park and the Khami Ruins, and World Heritage Site.

The University was founded as the country faced its worst economic challenges arising out of illegal sanctions imposed by western countries. This in turn severely limited state capacity to support public institutions, especially Universities. The institution had to come up with strategies of raising income to provide minimum physical infrastructure for both teaching and its management, to provide for contractual requirements of staff beyond the Government salaries and to support a massive staff development programme especially following the 2008/9 exodus of human skills from Zimbabwe. Quite a number of fundraising and income generation initiatives were tried but only one in the end was a success. And that was the establishment of the parallel programmes, which we borrowed from East African Universities. It is an initiative which supported spectacular infrastructure development and production of suitably qualified teaching, administrative and support staff, when the rest of the country was going through its worst economic crisis. This impressive growth translated itself in the successful operationalization of the multi-campus concept leading to the establishment of the Zvishavane, Harare and Kwekwe campuses. In recognition of its strong-willed efforts as well as sound leadership Midlands State University was also mandated to incubate the Manicaland College of Applied Sciences until it became a fully-fledged State University of Applied Sciences.