Education, News

Juba University collaborates to launch Hospitality school

The team from the Zetech University (second right) Prof. Njenga Munene and (second left) Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba Prof. John Akech

By Adia Jildo

The University of Juba and Zetech University in Kenya are set to launch a joint school of hospitality and tourism in the University of Juba.

The school set to be launched in the next academic year will help boost economic empowerment in the country as part of job creation.

The University will have two branches in Kenya and South Sudan.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba Prof. John A. Akech said during the announcement to the media that the two universities have agreed to work together in a student and staff collaboration.

 “We have agreed to launch a joint school of hospitality in Juba. The degree will be awarded by the two Universities but the teaching will come here,” he said.

According to Prof. Akech, the school is a private institute that will directly admit students based on regulation of Ministry of Higher Education of South Sudan.

He added that the two universities will have equal share on the school of hospitality in both Kenya and South Sudan.

He said there had been concern and for a while the University of Juba had been exploring opportunities on the school of hospitality.

He said there were some efforts that were interrupted by the 2016 war when the University of Florida wanted to collaborate with University of Juba.

“We think that Zetech University is very strong in hospitality as one of the programs they have. That is the area of strength and they are willing to collaborate with us and to have a presence in South Sudan to interchange and work in universities,” he said.

Prof. Akech highlighted the importance of the school in the developing country like South Sudan in achieving the mission of economic empowerment by giving skills.

 “Hospitality now especially hotels are expanding. There are very promising areas for jobs for South Sudanese. A lot of jobs are taken by workers from neighboring countries. It’s not something like discrimination against South Sudanese but as a business person, you need somebody who has been trained and they don’t. Few South Sudanese have been trained, some of them just do it, not learning but if you have a degree in that, then you have a healthy start” Prof. Akech said.

He said most of the hotels are occupied by foreign workers unlike other countries.

“It is an opportunity for South Sudanese to get jobs. We don’t have problem having foreigners working here but we need South Sudanese joining them” he said.

The Vice Chancellor of Zetech University Njenga Munene said the Zetech University will train and empower young South Sudanese youth on the hospital to strengthen them economically.

 “As neighbors and brothers, “we believe that the best we can give the youth of this country is education. This way, it will expose them to international markets of local positions, regional positions” he said.

Prof. Njenga said the joint collaboration will be beneficial for the two countries in the development and academia.

“You can only transform the economy of a country depending on how you train human personnel. The poorest countries were once rich countries with resources,” he said.

He said the culture in the academia helps to grow another university to help it develop for the sake of the future. The college of hospitality will offer both a diploma and degree program and lecturers will be from both Universities.

Comments are closed.