COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY (CBU)

 

VICE-CHANCELLOR’S COMMITTEE OF DEANS AND HEADS OF UNITS

CBU CELEBRATES AFRICAN UNIVERSITY DAY

A REPORT

BY

PROFESSOR MAURICE C LUNDU

UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN

 

 

1.                    INTRODUCTION

 

The Association of African Universities (AAU) decreed that November 12 of each year must be celebrated by all Universities on the continent as AFRICAN UNIVERSITY DAY.  The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the AAU first launched the “African University Day” in 1994.  The Copperbelt University first celebrated this day in 1999.

 

In 2000, the African University Day, November 12, fell on a Sunday.  CBU’s Vice-Chancellor’s Committee of Deans and Heads of United decided to have this celebration on November 10, 2000.  The same Committee nominated Professors N. Ronan and M C Lundu and Captain Kanungwe, Dean, School of Technology, to spearhead the celebration.  I must say, these three persons did a tremendous job to ensure that the celebration did not fail under any circumstances.

 

2.                    ORGANISATION OF THE CELEBRATION

It was decided to have the celebration in two parts mainly on the basis of the main theme of the celebrations.  This theme was:

 

S                     African Universities and the Challenge of Knowledge Creation and Application in the Information Age.

 

            This theme was divided into two sub-themes, namely;

 

 

S                                     The Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Promoting Quality of Training and Research; and

 

S                                     From Conventional Libraries to Electronic Libraries: The Role of the African University in the transformation.

 

2.1       The first part of the celebration was in form of Lectures/Seminars that took place in the Lecture Theatre.  All members of the academic community were invited to the lectures.

 

            This part took care of the main theme and the first sub-theme.

 

2.2       The second part was an exhibition of publications by Zambian and other African scholars and a demonstration of ICTs in the CBU Library in the afternoon (see programme attached).

 

 

3.                    LECTURES:

Four Lectures of papers were presented in accordance with the guidelines given by the AAU Secretariat sent to the Vice-Chancellor of each African University that is a member of the AAU.  These guidelines were in a circular dated August 30, 2000 from Accra, Ghana, the headquarters of the AAU.

 

On the basis of these guidelines, four papers or lectures were presented as follows:

 

1.                    Professor M C Lundu:

                        An Analysis of Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK): Its impact on Development in the Information Age

 

2.                   Professor N J Ronan:

                        Academic Research using the Internet.

 

3.                    Mr. Patrick Mugabeni - Coppernet

                        Internet Service in Zambia: An Overview

 

4.                   Students - Allan Kakubo and Tawanda Hojane - Third year Bsc S

                         Students - Computer Science

                        Website Development and Hosting

                       

The Library will have copies of these papers for consultation by those interested.  A copy each of these papers will be dispatched together with this report to the AAU Secretariat as requested.

 

4.                    EXHIBITION AND DEMONSTRATION

These were done in the CBU Library.  There was a very good exhibition by Zambians and other African scholars.  There was also a website design demonstration by the two students and of course such ICTs as CD-ROMS, Internet, etc. by the Library.

 

5.                    OVERALL COMMENTS:

5.1       Participation by the University Community in the celebrations was very poor.  Teaching staff and even students did not take lectures, exhibition of publications and demonstration of ICTs very seriously.  Worse still, there was no involvement of both the media and the community at large in the celebration despite Professor Lundu’s attempts to publicise the event through the press.  Even his appearance on TV programme during the week did not help.  One wonders how African Universities will take Knowledge Creation as a challenge in this millennium!

 

5.2       Lack of interest in the even meant that it had minimal impact on both the University Community and the Zambia community at large.  I do not think this is what the AAU and OAU had in mind when they launched this day as a special day for African Universities.   However, Prof. Ronan was of the view that this type of academic activity should be a regular feature of CBU’s intellectual concern.

 

6.                    CONCLUSION

Many thanks to the Vice-Chancellor’s office for supporting the celebration and the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee of Deans and Heads of Units for creating a Committee to organise the event.

 

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the contributions made by members of the Committee (Prof. Ronan and Captain Kanungwe), paper presenters and the Library staff who contributed so much to the success of the celebration although it lacked the sparkle of an academic pointer to the future.  My special acknowledgment goes to the teaching staff and students who participated in the celebration by attending the lectures and visiting the Library as requested.

 

 

 

 

Professor  Maurice C Lundu

CHAIRMAN OF THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE

 

cc:        Professor Nessan J Ronan

            Captain Kanungwe

            Mr. Boydie Nkhoma

 

 

Date:    January 30, 2001