Shot in Arm for School of Marine Engineering and Maritime Studies
The University of Namibia's (UNAM) School of Marine Engineering and Maritime studies recently received a welcome sponsorship cheque of N$250 000 from the Debmarine Namibia Social Responsibility Fund.
Speaking at the official Handover, at which samples of Benthic Macro fauna (invertebrates that live on or in sediment or attached to hard substrates) were also donated to the Department of Biological Sciences as well as the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, UNAM's Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Professor Frednard Gideon was keen to emphasise on the significance of the donation in “forging very strong and dependable” partnerships with key stakeholders.
“The University of Namibia is very grateful for the funding support provided by Debmarine,” said Dr Gideon.
“Government's NDP5 has recognised the importance of mining and the Blue economy as major role players in the socio-economic development and growth of Namibia.”
“This will only succeed or be possible if accompanied with massive human resource capacity building through skills development and upgrading,” he added.
The Chief Executive Officer of Debmarine Namibia, Mr Otto Shikongo, said the Company was honouring a “commitment to education, capacity and skills development” through this sponsorship of N$250 000 to UNAM.
“Namibia currently has no institution that provides dedicated education and training in maritime fields at bachelor or postgraduate degree level,” said Mr Shikongo.
“We applaud UNAM, supported by the Sam Nujoma Foundation, for the noble initiative to establish this much needed institution, which we believe will grow the Namibian maritime talent pool. This will allow Namibia to compete on a global scale with other countries,” he added.
The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, admitted its first students in 2009 and houses the Centre for Mining and Metallurgical Research and Training. Metallurgical engineering is the study of metals and engineers apply their knowledge of metals to deal with all aspects of the production and application of metals and their alloys.
