Bindura University of Science Education

Infobox University
name=Bindura University of Science Education|motto=Commitment Discipline Excellence


latin_name=
established=1996
type=Public
chancellor=Robert Gabriel Mugabe
vice_chancellor=Sam Tswana
city=Bindura
country=Zimbabwe
campus=Urban
affiliations=
website= [http://www.buse.ac.zw/ www.buse.ac.zw]

Bindura University of Science Education is a Zimbabwean university offering courses mainly in science education, though recently courses in commerce and computer science have been introduced.

The main campus is located 5km from Bindura town center, with a separate campus which houses the department of computer science on the Trojan Road.

History

The origins of the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) can be traced to the Zimbabwe-Cuba Teacher Training Programme, which started in the mid-1980s. The programme used to send Zimbabwean student teachers to Cuba for training in Science Education.

The programme was relocated to Zimbabwe in 1995 for economic reasons. A decision was then made to set up a college in Bindura under the auspices of the University of Zimbabwe, but which would be turned into a full fledged university within a period of two to four years. The College admitted its first group of 125 students in March 1996.

An Act of Parliament, the Bindura University of Science Education Act, was passed in February 2000 conferring University status to the College. The first graduation ceremony was held in 2003 where the Chancellor and Vice chancellor of the university were installed as well as capping a group of 140 graduands.

Location

The University is located in Bindura, which is about 100 km north east of Harare. Bindura is the provincial capital of Mashonaland Central Province and is a small town of about 40,000 inhabitants. It offers a quiet semi-urban environment.

Politics

The University has experienced its fair share of the problems in Zimbabwe mainly because of its location in Mashonaland Central which is considered a stronghold of the ruling party ZANU PF. In 2002 a student belonging to the MDC party was brutally assaulted by suspected ZANU-PF supporters and the university was briefly closed.

Vice Chancellors

* Professor Cowdeng Chikomba 1996-2002 (Pro-Vice Chancellor)
* Professor Sam Tswana 2002 - Present

Notable faculty

* Christopher Chetsanga - Harvard - discovered two enzymes involved in DNA repair

References

External links

* [http://www.buse.ac.zw/ Bindura University of Science Education website] en icon