University of Botswana to open more areas of study to Seychellois students

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Botswana, David Norris, paid a courtesy call to President Danny Faure at State House.

(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychellois students will be able to further their studies in even more fields at the University of Botswana, a high official said on Wednesday.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Botswana, David Norris, spoke to the press after paying a courtesy call to the Seychelles' president, Danny Faure, at State House, Victoria.

"I indicated to his excellency that we are a comprehensive university and we offer degree programmes in almost all disciplines including medicine and sciences," said Norris.

He added that the President "was very excited that we are offering degree programmes in medicine, especially at specialisation level as he says you have doctors here who would be keen to go and specialise in various medical programmes."

The fields of education and library studies are already available to Seychellois students through an agreement signed in 2015. Over 50 teachers and librarians have graduated under a Memorandum of Understanding established between the University of Botswana and the Ministry of Education in Seychelles.

Teachers from Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, can pursue their degree in education or library studies at the University. Under the same agreement, teachers from Botswana are teaching in the island nation to compensate for the shortage of teachers.

Norris noted that for the past two years the best overall students at the University of Botswana were from Seychelles, namely Jocelyn Dogley, who graduated in 2018, and Tania Bellard in 2019. 

The Vice-Chancellor also announced that the University is "offering full scholarship tuition, accommodation, and allowance for last year's Valedictorian, Tania, to come and do her Masters this coming academic year that starts in July-August."

During his visit to Seychelles, Norris also held meetings with high officials from the Ministry of Education, the University of Seychelles' Vice-Chancellor and his faculty deans and the chief executive of the Agency for National Human Resources Development (ANHRD). He will meet with representatives from the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) on Thursday.

"With the Vice-Chancellors of the University of Seychelles, we explored areas of collaborations such as student and staff exchange, and research partnership and collaboration," informed Norris.

"We look forward to strengthening and enhancing the relationship that we already have with Seychelles," concluded Norris.