President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is set to preside over the 19th graduation ceremony of Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) at the institution’s main campus in Masvingo on Thursday, where he will cap more than 3 400 graduands.
Of the graduating students, 2 119 are female, and 1 358 are male, reflecting the increasing enrolment of female students in higher education and their growing contribution towards national development.
GZU has responded to the national call for tertiary institutions to spearhead innovation and industrialisation through its Innovation Centre, which is developing technologies such as the Substation Monitoring and Transformer Protection System aimed at preventing vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure.
The university has also invented a bird deterrent device for use by wheat and indigenous grain farmers.
An Innovation Centre for Dryland Agriculture in Chivi, which is working closely with local farmers to improve productivity in drought-prone areas has also been established.
Running under the theme, “Delivering Innovation and Human Capital for National Impact,” the graduation ceremony accentuates GZU’s commitment to transforming research outputs into practical solutions that address community needs and contribute to the attainment of an upper middle-income economy by 2030. -ZBC
