The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development in collaboration the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education ZIMCHE held an all-stakeholder workshop on internationalisation of higher and tertiary education (IHTE). The Honourable Professor A. Murwira, Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development was the guest of honour at the workshop held on Tuesday July 3, 2018, at the Rainbow hotel in Harare. The Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education is the ministry’s technical arm charged with regulating and assuring quality in Higher Education Institutions.
During the workshop the Ministry and ZIMCHE engaged stakeholders including heads of Higher Education institutions, senior government officials and captains of Industry in the development of a national framework for Internationalisation of Higher and Tertiary Education (IHTE). The workshop was a follow up on the establishment of the long awaited National Qualifications Framework (NQF) that will enable vertical and horizontal articulation of learning programmes and learner mobility within and outside Zimbabwe.
The workshop was conducted at an opportune time as the ministry recently completed the National skills Audit whose results show an urgent need to bridge the skills gaps identified. The all-stakeholder engagement workshop leveraged on the opportunities afforded by the Internationalisation of Higher and Tertiary Education (IHTE). Among other possibilities, the internationalisation of Higher Education will foster Zimbabwe Higher Education competitiveness. The workshop was conducted on the backdrop of a previous research that revealed that IHTE was imperative for the success of Zimbabwe’s new thrust on international re-engagement.
The workshop stressed that Internationalisation of Higher Education in Zimbabwe needed to embrace the following but is not limited to:
- Recruitment of Students from outside Zimbabwe to study in Zimbabwe
- Fostering Active Partnerships with foreign institutions
- Sending Students to Study Abroad Wholly or partially (Student Exchange Programmes)
- Setting up Overseas Campuses of Local institutions
- International Research Collaborations
- Participating at International Platforms for Teaching, Research and Community Engagement
- Global Engagement in Enterprise Development