CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE
Botho University looks to expand further into Africa From NIIT to Botho College and multi-discipline varsity
Botho University is celebrating its 25 years of existence. The university recently had their anniversary celebration ceremony at the university campus in Gaborone to kickstart a series of activities that are designed to honour their milestone.
This ceremony gave attendees an opportunity to reflect on where the university came from, its achievements and future plans. The university has evolved from humble beginnings in 1997 when it was a training Institute called NIIT, before it grew into a College called Botho College. In 2013, the institution graduated to become known as Botho University. Director and Pro Vice Chancellor of Botho University Ravi Srinivasan said the name Botho befits their institution as it is one that strives to create a new path of excellence and it is not afraid to challenge the status quo and contribute to the community. Srinivasan stated that Botho University is constantly guided by two main goals, which are the necessity to continue the education process on the highest level and maintaining the safety and well-being of the whole academic community. An elated Srinivasan stated that the institution has achieved their goals through various challenges even ones brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. Vice Chancellor Dr. Sheela Raja Ram reflected on the university’s earlier days. “We started our life as a single discipline IT focused institution in the Main Mall but over these 25 years, we have become a strong multidisciplinary provider - a fully-fledged University,” Ram noted, adding that this milestone is about the growth of the people that have been part of the institution and its maturity. The university has partnered with other stakeholders all over the world to ensure that their graduates get the best education. The institution has a partnership with the KTH - the
Royal Institute of Technology Sweden. This partnership culminated in Botho University adopting the Challenge Driven Education as a pedagogy for sustainable development through which students get to work in communities finding solutions to the challenges local communities face. This union has birthed an Innovation for Sustainable Development - online course where our students get to learn with students from other African countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Swedish students. Moreover, the institution has also partnered with DHBW Germany which enabled the University to implement Work Integrated Learning in the Hospitality programme where students work with local industry partners and study at the same time, and they have Pan- African Collaborations with Ashesi University in Ghana as well as with South African universities.
The institution prides itself as a technological leader which was able
to seamlessly switch to virtual learning during the pandemic because their efforts for digital transformation was radical enough to handle the changes of the world during the pandemic. There is an overall 60 percent employment rate amongst graduates from the institution. Most alumni said that they are happy with the soft skill development they got at the university and the institution was given a 77 percent employability score, putting the institution on par with other peers who focus on employability. The celebration also ushered in a new program by the university, called the BU Community Initiative. Ram explains that this is a specific not-for-profit foundation that serves the local community and students and alumni. “The BU Community initiative
will allow us to formalise all the community service work we do by supporting student scholarships, graduate entrepreneurial support, community development projects and research to develop solutions for the challenges local communities face.”
According to Ram, the community initiative will be aimed at a large spectrum of people from students who need sponsorship, funding entrepreneurial ventures by graduates, research into community solutions by students and graduates amongst other things. Moreover, the community initiative will branch out to all their campuses in Africa as time goes on.
APRIL 27TH ZODIAC
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APRIL 27TH CAREER
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