Ohio University in the United States of America is planning to rekindle its relations with the University of Botswana. This came to light during a courtesy call Ohio University’s Vice Provost for Global Affairs and International Studies, Dr. Lorna Jean Edmonds, paid Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris, on June 18, 2018.
Ohio University has a historic partnership with the University of Botswana that dates back to the 1980s. The two universities have enjoyed a long standing relationship working together and collaborating in a number of areas particularly for staff development.
Among its alumni are Deputy Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Professor Martin Mokgwathi, who is an alumnus of The Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education, and Careers and Counselling Centre Director, Dr. Lucky Odirile, who is a graduate of the Centre for International Studies.
As such, Dr Edmonds said UB and Ohio University could rekindle their relationship by leveraging and collaborating on areas they had worked on together in the past. She said they were planning to bring Ohio University’s new president to UB so that he could meet with UB management to discuss and identify specific areas in which the two institutions could network and collaborate on.
Dr. Duane Nellis joined Ohio University as its 21st president on June 12, 2017 and has been in Botswana before as part of his research in the Okavango area and therefore he was interested to come back to the country for a working visit at the University of Botswana.
“This is new era for us and we don’t want to miss this opportunity to network with the University of Botswana,” said Dr Edmond who is also Ohio University’s Professor of Health Sciences and Professions.
Dr Edmond noted areas in which Ohio University and UB could collaborate on among them health, business, African studies but in particular sport where the two institution could develop joint programmes given Ohio University was ranked number in the world in the area of sport.
In response, Professor Norris was upbeat about the prospects of UB and Ohio University working together especially on research. He welcomed the proposal to host Ohio University’s new President, Dr Nellis. The Vice Chancellor observed that as the University of Botswana was shifting focus towards impactful research, it was important to meet Dr Nellis so that they could discuss areas of collaboration between the two institutions.
Professor Norris said there were a number of areas impacting on national development which the University of Botswana was naturally compelled to do research on such lower pass rates in schools, health and environmental issues especially renewable energy as well as coming up with products that could be commercialised to create a third stream income for the university.
In addition, he said collaborating with Ohio University would help the University of Botswana to learn how to generate income instead of relying solely on government.