CHAMPION OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
IT’S almost six years since Professor Otlogetswe Totolo was appointed Vice-chancellor (VC) of the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST).
Since then, a lot has happened in terms of infrastructure development and student enrolment numbers.
Totolo, an Environmental Scientist who has held key senior positions at the University of Botswana (UB) such as Deputy Vice-chancellor (Academic Affairs) and Director of Centre for Scientific Research Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation, is proud of what the University has achieved since he arrived in 2016.
He recently sat down with The Voice Business writer, KABELO ADAMSON, to talk about some of these achievements, challenges as well as plans for the research-based University he leads.
You have been at BIUST for almost six years; give us a brief reflection of your stay at the University.
When I arrived, we were right at the beginning of everything. The University was at its infancy in terms of buildings, student hostels, lecture rooms, teacher theatres, and student numbers were also relatively low.
But as facilities started increasing, student numbers also started to grow and now, annually, we admit around 500 students, but by then we were admitting around 200.
It is a good number because facilities are still a limitation but because of COVID-19, we have realised that you do not only need classrooms for teaching and we are currently exploring online teaching because students don’t need to physically come to classes.
How is the University doing in terms of research?
In terms of research, the university was a little bit on the low side but, with time, we have seen our research noted across many institutions. The citation index for BIUST is close to one, which means everyone at BIUST publishes. The highest in Africa is the University of Stellenbosch, which stands at 1.5.
So, for a relatively young university, you can see that we are getting there and have surpassed many universities that have long been in existence.