Texila American University (TAU) Group has pledged, through TAU Zambia, to push beyond the next level the quality of excellence in education provided in Zambia.
In so doing, over the last couple of weeks, TAU Zambia had been finalizing and consolidating its in-country operations prior to the January, 2017, inauguration of the newly acquired 25,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art campus in one of the Capital City’s most exclusive suburbs.
This consolidation has seen the finalization of the acquisition of TAU Zambia’s new property and the recruitment of highly qualified academic and support staff to run the university when it opens in March, 2017.
TAU’s Founder and President, Saju Bhaskar S.P, made it emphatically evident that TAU’s desire for educational excellence that supersedes what currently is the standard in Zambian Education could only be achieved through the expanding and maximising of Zambia’s educational capacity.
The President made this clear when he paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Health, Honourable Chitalu Chilufya M.D., at his offices on Tuesday, 25th October, 2016.
In plainly outlining how TAU, through TAU Zambia, would expand and maximize Zambia’s educational capacity, the President assured the Minister that TAU Zambia would bring together both local and international expats that would provide unparalleled and experience-drenched services, which, coupled with the quality education and infrastructure for which the TAU Group is synonymous, would maximize the aforementioned capacity.
“The high quality infrastructure that TAU Zambia’s facilities will provide in the form of state-of-the-art laboratories, classroom and libraries, and the Educational Tourism that will be generated by Zambia through the university’s aim of not only catering to Zambia but the rest of the region as well, will generate revenue for the country,” he said.
The President further unquestionably elaborated to the Honorable Minister that TAU Zambia was more than capable of not only exceeding the requirement standards set by the Health Professions Council of Zambia (HPCZ), but in setting a benchmark at which all other medical institutions in the country will be judged.
And speaking at the same occasion, Dr.Chilufya stated that the Ministry would facilitate partnerships between TAU Zambia and local hospitals for the successful training of medical doctors who graduate from the university.
The President acknowledged that the Ministry of Health’s facilitation of partnerships with local hospitals on behalf of TAU Zambia and, more so, his pledged personal capacity facilitation, would allow for a much larger partnership for TAU Zambia beyond the more than the five (5) hospitals that are already keen to partner with the university.
The School of Medicine, Department of Nursing, Department of Pharmacy, Department of Public Health, School of Business, Information & Technology, and Education, are among the inaugural schools for which the university is currently enrolling and that will commence in March, 2017.
Furthermore, the President acknowledged that pushing educational excellence in Zambia would require a two-pronged approach that is anchored on one end with the provision of quality education, and on the other end with the generation of revenue for the country to, thus, bolster and encourage more investment in the sector by the Government.
It is for this reason that when the President paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Higher Education, Honourable Nkandu Luo Ph.D., on Wednesday, 19th October, 2016, the main talking point was Educational Tourism and how TAU will capitalise on this revenue generating venture for the betterment of the Zambian republic.
Educational Tourism, which is one of the fastest growing areas of the travel that is part of the, as of 2014, US$7.6 trillion global tourism industry, refers to any programme in which participants travel to a location as a group with the primary purpose of engaging in a learning experience directly related to the location (Rodger, 1998: 28).
The main idea behind this concept is that travel is as much about self-improvement as it is about relaxation. Therefore, as students come to Zambia to study, they not only travel within their destination country of choice but throughout that county and even to neighboring lands.
The goal here is to widen the educational experience so that university students do not only know their own culture but also that of at least one other nation.
