Unam unveils plans for medical, engineering school in the North

NAMIBIA’S endeavour to produce its own doctors and engineers has received a major boost after the University of Namibia announced plans to set up a fully-fledged medicine and engineering school at its northern campus.

The nation will, however, wait at least until the year 2020 before the dream is realised as the university will first have to embark on a global fund-raising campaign to solicit money for the estimated N$270 million project. The fund-raising campaign, dubbed Engineering/Information Technology and Medical Capacity Building (ENGIMED Appeal), will be launched by President San Nujoma at a gala dinner at the Ongwediva Trade Fair Centre on Friday.Nujoma is the Chancellor of Unam and a strong campaigner for the country to produce its own doctors and scientists.The ENGIMED Appeal, which will be driven under the auspices of university’s fund-raising arm the Unam Foundation, aims to net about N$30 million for the first five-year development phase.Unam’s Director of Communication and Marketing, Edwin Tjiramba, lauded the campaign as part of Unam’s continuous effort to transform the country’s tertiary education into an engine of socio-economic development.He said that the planned school of medicine is intended to meet the demands of the country’s public health sector by training doctors and other medical specialists, while the new faculty of engineering will increase the number of engineers and “open access to engineering degree programmes to all capable Namibians.Unam currently run pre-medical and engineering courses where students spend the first two years at the institutions and then continue the rest of their studies at South African universities.According to Tjiramba, limited places at South African institutions has made it imperative for Namibia to set up the infrastructure to train its own professionals.With the Polytechnic of Namibia having opened its own school of engineering a few years ago, some critics charged that the two institutions duplicate each others’ work.”Discussions are already under-way for the two institutions to co-ordinate their activities in terms of the programmes we offer and sharing facilities,” Tjiramba stated.He said Unam decided to set up the school in the North in order to redress the imbalances of the past and the fact that more than half of the Namibian population live there.The fund-raising campaign, dubbed Engineering/Information Technology and Medical Capacity Building (ENGIMED Appeal), will be launched by President San Nujoma at a gala dinner at the Ongwediva Trade Fair Centre on Friday.Nujoma is the Chancellor of Unam and a strong campaigner for the country to produce its own doctors and scientists.The ENGIMED Appeal, which will be driven under the auspices of university’s fund-raising arm the Unam Foundation, aims to net about N$30 million for the first five-year development phase.Unam’s Director of Communication and Marketing, Edwin Tjiramba, lauded the campaign as part of Unam’s continuous effort to transform the country’s tertiary education into an engine of socio-economic development.He said that the planned school of medicine is intended to meet the demands of the country’s public health sector by training doctors and other medical specialists, while the new faculty of engineering will increase the number of engineers and “open access to engineering degree programmes to all capable Namibians.Unam currently run pre-medical and engineering courses where students spend the first two years at the institutions and then continue the rest of their studies at South African universities.According to Tjiramba, limited places at South African institutions has made it imperative for Namibia to set up the infrastructure to train its own professionals.With the Polytechnic of Namibia having opened its own school of engineering a few years ago, some critics charged that the two institutions duplicate each others’ work.”Discussions are already under-way for the two institutions to co-ordinate their activities in terms of the programmes we offer and sharing facilities,” Tjiramba stated.He said Unam decided to set up the school in the North in order to redress the imbalances of the past and the fact that more than half of the Namibian population live there.