Panafrican News Agency

Mauritian Ag. President lays emphasis on research in universities

Balaclava, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritian Ag. President Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory on Tuesday stressed that research should be the heartbeat of any university and spoke of the significant importance of research in universities, at the opening ceremony of the second edition of the Global Trends in Management, IT and Governance in an e-world (e-MIG 2019).

Thr two-day international conference, aiming to encourage collaboration, networking, and scholarship, is a joint initiative of the Open University of Mauritius and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa to serve as a platform for the development of leadership, capacity and scholarship in the African Region.

The participants are from Mauritius, South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Mr Vyapoory said that the conference will spearhead educational cooperation and set the pace for a sustained research agenda that will benefit the African continent.

“In the wake of a challenging digital world, universities should promote digital learning as well as explore means of high quality education for the citizens,” he said, adding, “the ultimate beneficiaries will indeed be the society.”  

According to him, the conference will bring academics and non-academics to conduct research together so as to make research more impactful. He also called for collaboration among different partner countries so as to produce sufficient amount of resources and high quality research and research funding on the international front.

For his part, the Chairperson of Open University, Mr Duva Pentiah, said the e-world is prone to challenges and various transformations.

“It is imperative that innovative and best practices are identified through the universality of education. The conference will thus provide an international platform bringing together academics and researchers from a range of disciplines to share expertise and knowledge in different fields which are e-driven”, he emphasised.

-0- PANA NA/AR 14May2019