100 Acres for University Campuses, UoM Research Facility

In a bid to promote research especially in the agricultural sector, some 10 acres of land from either of these sites will be initially offered to the University of Mauritius (UoM) for testing purposes.

The minister of Tertiary Education, Science, Research and Technology Dr Rajesh Jeetah made this offer to the university at the opening ceremony of the training workshop on Web 2.0 learning opportunities organised by the Faculty of Agriculture. “We have allocated plots of land for the development of tertiary education and the construction of the new university campuses should start soon. Meanwhile, the university can make use of these facilities to carry out some experiments,” he said.

“If they come up with good project proposals, we can also help them to obtain funding,”underlined Jeetah. However, the university will have to return the plot of land once the construction of campuses kicks off.

He appealed to academics, researchers and students to think differently. “We should have a critical look at things and ask ourselves the right questions. The university has an important role to bring about positive changes to the society,” highlighted Dr Jeetah. He also deplored the excessive use of insecticides and fertilisers for vegetable cultivation, which cause diseases.

Three training sessions on Web 2.0 applications have been scheduled with 25 participants in each session. The aim is to increase awareness about applications which can help institutions, NGOs, farmers and researchers to link up on social networking sites to discuss development issues.