Naomab robed as Nust VC

Wetumwene Shikage



The Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) held the robing ceremony of the new vice chancellor, Dr Erold Naomab, along with the academic welcome for 2021.

Due to Covid-19 regulations, the number of those attending the ceremony was limited, and it was held virtually on Tuesday, 2 February, for others who could not attend physically.

The robing ceremony and 2021 academic welcome were held under the theme ‘Re-envisioning higher education in a post Covid era’.

Naomab shared his thoughts on aspects of students’ educational standards and quality, adding that Nust will remain focused to ensure that access to higher education is not only a regarded as a privilege, but as a right.

This will enable students from disadvantaged backgrounds to have access to education, which then helps in changing the course of poverty in their communities. He, however, said Nust must strike the necessary balance to offer quality education and maintain broad-based access to its programmes and qualifications.

The theme of the event does not presume that the pandemic is over, but rather aims to implore that the future is ahead and needs to be greatly prepared for at present. This is by critically assessing the fundamental lessons learnt in order to be proactive and embrace new opportunities which will be brought about in order to revitalise higher education for the Covid-19 generation.

This aligns with Nust’s vision to become a premier technological university.

“This vision demands us to turn Nust into a more comprehensive, more transcending, more translator, more applied, more self-regulatory and more self-referential entity based on merit and substance,” Naomab said.

Also speaking at the ceremony was the recently appointed NUST student representative council president, Pamela Gertze. She said the students have endured much thus far to reach their heights and added that the institution must chart a path that will ensure a convenient and successful academic life for students at NUST.

“It was already evident that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, higher education was already facing multiple criticisms regarding the affordability and lack of true accessibility to the very segment of the population it was supposed to support, and Nust will not be an exception,” she said.