PWANI UNIVERSITY MAY SOON BECOME A REALITY

TASK FORCE MUST PLAN LOCATION, INFRASTRUCTURE,VISION AND CURRICULA OF OUR 'COAST UNIVERSITY'

Coastweek - - Now that Pwani University is set to see the light at the end of the tunnel after Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has promised to donate $10 million (sh.800 million) and the Kenyan government to give sh.250 million to bring the figure to sh.1 billion, all those who are concerned must sit down to brainstorm about the location of the university, its infrastructure, its curriculum, its vision, and the problems that the university will encounter after its establishment.

With Sh.1 billion at our disposal, Pwani University is now a reality awaiting us to pull our resources and to come up with some magnificent ideas on how to accomplish this task.
Now it is left to the taskforce to sit down and lay out a plan about the location of this university, its vision, infrastructure and its curricula.
Proposal: As the Coast Province is big and stretches over a vast distance, it is only reasonable to have colleges of the university located in different places to cater for the needs of the Pwani people.

In my humble opinion, these colleges can be established in Kwale, Mombasa Island (if possible), Voi, Mariakani, Kikambala, Kilifi, Malindi, Mambrui, Lamu, and Tana district depending upon the resources available and the needs of the people in these places.
For the benefit of all coastal people, let these colleges be established in areas where there is the availability of resources, material and the market needs of the people and the country so as to fully enjoy the benefits of this long awaited university.
Curricula: Every country or for that matter every province has its facilities and needs and as the curricula nowadays are mostly market-oriented, then we have to see the market needs of the province when we make decisions concerning the curricula of the Pwani University.
We have to take into consideration that the Coast Province maybe an ideal place to teach marine studies, animal science, environmental science, and other sciences and arts majors. Market-oriented curricula are best suited for this university and therefore, those concerned should come up with curricula that will be comprehensive and inclusive of all the needs of our growing nation and advantageous to the people.

Libraries: Very important and crucial to the establishment of any university is the university library, and as the idea is to have various colleges in different locations, we shall need to establish libraries that will act as the backbone to these colleges even if the administration of these libraries will be housed in one of these location to oversee the acquisition, classification, binding and circulation of materials.
All academicians agree that without the well equipped library there is no university and we, therefore, should give the establishment of a library as a priority to establishing a good university.

Cooperation: Luckily, Pwani University can have all that is state-of-the-art and hi-tech because of its late establishment in comparison with other universities in Kenya, and as such we can sit and scrutinize other institutions in the country to avoid their mistakes and come up with what is best for our young university.
We shall all need as much cooperation as possible from our sister universities all over the country to make Pwani University one of the best in the region.
Let us all come together through coordination and cooperation to turn this dream into a reality. Harambee !

Kenyans are known worldwide for brotherly assistance to each other, and we certainly are expecting a lot from our brothers and sisters all over the country to come to the assistance of establishing this magnificent tower of knowledge and education for our coastal brothers.
Let us all harambee together to come up with something unique for the coastal people who have for many years been forbidden this delicious educational fruit which will definitely go a long way in transforming this region into a better and more prosperous region.

Salim Elhaj,
Zayed Central Library, UAE University,
Al Ain -
UAE.selhaj@uaeu.ac.ae