Polytechnic of Namibia was established in 1994, with the motto of Practice, Promote and transfer of Technology and its first rector, was and still is Dr. Tjama Tjivikua. It is a home to students and lecturers from the different parts of the country and from other countries. University Web ranking (2014) states that PON is ranked as the 2nd best in Namibia. There are still debates on whether PON should be transformed or not and this essay is going to talk about those reasons.
PON should be transformed into a Namibian University of science and Technology (NUST) because it will not affect the former students that were there before the transformation …show more content…
In the first instance those graduating from the institution in 2014 will do so with certificates from the Namibia University of Science and Technology. The name change will open a lot of doors, especially for those that are graduating; this will include their attractiveness and status of their qualifications (Tjivikua, …show more content…
PON should not be transformed into a university because, the people that want to do short courses will not be able to do that anymore since they are going to be phased out and they will have to do more than a year just to get that qualification. Nuule (2013) says that “the phase out of diploma and certificate, which I believe was preferred alternative for some students who did not wish to take on the longer degree courses, encourages me to look options at other institutions”.
Secondly, is that since the name is being changed from Polytechnic of Namibia to Namibian University of Science and Technology, the name does not include other fields of studies like School of Management, the students under this faculty might feel left out of the transformation that is being processed.
Thirdly, The transformation will not bring all the benefits because all universities are bound to have one graduation date and right now PON has two one in April and one in October. If the transformation happens than there will be one, meaning if one does not graduate this year then it will only happen next year and this can cause chaos when one wants to look for a job and cannot use their qualifications to do