Polytechs granted degree awarding status

The government has shot down a request by the country's polytechnics to be transformed into universities but says the institutions of higher learning can only be granted a degree awarding status as government continues to receive proposals on the revised higher and tertiary education bill.

It emerged during the Bulawayo Polytechnic graduation ceremony that principals of the country's tertiary learning institutions had made ambitious proposals to have the training centres transformed into universities, a development government said will not see the light of the day for now.

Addressing stakeholders during the graduation ceremony, Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Professor Jonathan Moyo said the proposed roadmap will instead see polytechnics awarding undergraduate degrees and producing technologists while the training of artisans will now be confined to vocational training institutions.

Excited graduates told reporters that they cannot wait to join the industry and help in the country's development.

The government is in the process of transforming the higher and tertiary education bill that will also see the higher learning institutions' syllabi changing to produce graduates that meet industry's current needs.