WUA is a private institution that was co-founded by two visionaries Professor Hope Cynthia Sadza, a former Public Service Commissioner and Dr Fay King Chung the former Minister of Education in Zimbabwe. It was established in 2002 and granted a Charter by the Government of Zimbabwe in 2004, (Statutory Instrument 130 of 2004). It is currently operating from its head office located at 549 Arcturus Road, Manresa Park, Harare. It has satellite campuses in Bulawayo, Marondera, Kadoma and Mutare in Zimbabwe and an Open Distance Learning programme for students in Malawi and Zambia.
The University has strong governance structures provided by the Trustee Deed and Charter. The Charter provides for a three-tier governance structure comprising the Board of Trustees (BoT), Council and Senate. The BoT is the principal authority of the University. It appoints the Chancellor and gives general policy guidelines to the University. The Chancellor, in turn, appoints the Vice- Chancellor (VC) and one or more Pro-Vice- Chancellors (PVCs) upon recommendation of the BoT, in consultation with the Council. The VC is the chief academic, administrative and disciplinary officer (CEO) of the University, responsible for its daily operations. Management of Faculties is vested in the Deans of Faculties under the overall coordination of the Pro Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs and Research.
WUA’s vision is to be the best University in Africa in the promotion of gender equity. Its mission is to provide quality tuition, research, service to the community, innovation and industrialisation to empower mostly female students for leadership and developmental roles. WUA is guided by its core values which are honesty, integrity, professionalism, accountability and teamwork. WUA seeks to enhance women’s capacity through the provision of higher education which enables women to fulfil political, economic, social and leadership roles free from the gender based violence.
WUA is the only women’s university in the region that is directly tackling the problem of women’s access to university education. Its enrolment policy of 85% women and 15% men is contributing towards the 50:50 gender participation ratio enunciated in the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and the Constitution of Zimbabwe. The University considers the empowerment of women to be absolutely critical for substantive economic growth and improved democratic governance. WUA is developing as a multi-disciplinary institution focusing on fostering gender equality and reducing gender disparity in higher education, through empowering women in a variety of fields.
Currently, WUA has three faculties namely Agricultural Sciences, Management and Entrepreneurial Sciences and Information Technology, Social and Gender Transformative Sciences and the Research, and Postgraduate Centre as well as the Quality Assurance Directorate. These faculties offer Diploma, Undergraduate, Masters’ and Doctoral Degree Programmes. The newly established Research and Postgraduate Centre which is headed by a Director is a hub for catalysing policy relevant to research and publications, ensuring quality and coordinating doctoral research and supervision.
The University has experienced phenomenal growth in student numbers from an initial enrolment of 145 students in 2002 to over 5,600 students in 2021. In its 19 years of existence the University has produced a total of 10481 graduates most of whom are employed in government, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and universities with some establishing themselves as entrepreneurs. WUA offers a flexible study time table consisting of regular day and evening classes, weekend classes, holiday block releases and Open Distance Learning (ODL) modules. WUA has foreign students from fourteen African countries and efforts are under way to increase enrolment of students from the SADC region through the University Open Distance Learning (ODL) Programme. WUA has enjoyed a steady increase in enrolment in Malawi and Zambia as part of its regional expansion over the past three years Currently, WUA has 38 students from Malawi studying various programmes through the ODL mode. Efforts are being made to increase enrolment in Malawi and Zambia.
Driving WUA’s growth is its rich pool of human resources from which various skills are drawn in order to carry out and deliver on research outputs. WUA researchers have strong analytical skills and proficiency in written and spoken English; very strong knowledge of international, regional and national laws and policies on women’s rights; broad understanding of the development and economic challenges and priorities in the African region which have a bearing on the extent of women’s political and economic empowerment and participation in decision making; and the researchers bring a wealth of experience and expertise in applied qualitative and quantitative research with diverse groups of people including women, children and men.
The Women’s University in Africa’s mission is to reduce gender disparity by providing gender sensitive and socially responsible education and research skills training.
The Women’s University in Africa’s vision is to be the best university in relation to the promotion of gender equity and equality in higher education.
Our goal is to transform WUA into a modern, effective and significant higher education institution the efficiently delivers its mandate.
Addressing Gender Disparity and Fostering equity in University Education
Everything we do at WUA is intended to make a positive impact on society, the economy, cultural life, public policy, health, and the environment. Our societal impact will ensure the sustainability of our communities, our city, our country, our continent, and our planet. Working together, we will transform our students’ lives through quality education, unlock and maximise the potential of our staff to thrive, apply our energies to developing new generations of influential people, and dedicate our knowledge and time to solving difficult problems for a better and more sustainable world.
At WUA provide our students with a holistic world-class educational experience that extends beyond formal teaching and learning, to prepare them to be curious and resilient critical thinkers who make a positive impact on the world. WUA will lead with education that is based on fundamental principles of quality teaching and learning in an innovative way that is adaptable and flexible, and fit for future needs. Our teaching and learning will be infused with relevant research and underpinned by care, relevance and social responsiveness. The social purpose of universities is core to our approach to education and our community engagement activities, expanding our students’ opportunities to apply their learning to the solution of societal and sustainability problems, both during and after their studies.
We will build on WUA’s success in becoming a leading international research university, anchored in Africa and the global south, focused on finding, offering and spearheading novel and purposeful solutions to the major challenges of our time and of the future. Through the creative use of evolving technologies, our ground breaking research will contribute to living sustainably in an increasingly digital future. Our research will be underpinned by our values – Impact, Innovation, Inclusivity and Integrity – and our education will be infused with the curiosity and critical thinking that leads to discovery. The quality and impact of our research will be far-reaching and influential.
We will build on WUA’s success in becoming a leading international research university, anchored in Africa and the global south, focused on finding, offering and spearheading novel and purposeful solutions to the major challenges of our time and of the future. Through the creative use of evolving technologies, our ground breaking research will contribute to living sustainably in an increasingly digital future. Our research will be underpinned by our values – Impact, Innovation, Inclusivity and Integrity – and our education will be infused with the curiosity and critical thinking that leads to discovery. The quality and impact of our research will be far-reaching and influential.
Unicef
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Second Partner
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Third Partner
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Trustee & Co-Founder
She is the Founder and Founding Vice Chancellor of the Women’s University in Africa. She holds a PhD in Public administration with the University of Zimbabwe where her research was on “Critical Organisational problems of administering and Managing Social Development in a newly-independent Public Service”: the case of Zimbabwe. She also holds a Masters degree in Public Administration with the University of Missouri, Columbia and BSc Public Administration with the same university. She holds a Primary Teachers Diploma with Waddilove Teachers’ College, Marondera in Zimbabwe.
Professor Sadza’s employment record backdates to 1964 as school teacher. Post Independence she became registrar of Apprenticeship Authority in the Ministry of Manpower Planning and Development in Zimbabwe. She is one of the founding Directors of the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration & Management (ZIPAM).In 1987 to 1989 she was Commissioner of the Public Service Review Commission, Government of Zimbabwe. In 1988 to 1990 she was Zimbabwe Parastatals Commissioner. In 1990 to 2000 she was Public Service Commissioner in Zimbabwe.
Professor Sadza has done a lot of publications with emphasis on gender issues.
She has presented papers at national and international fora among which were:
Professor Sadza is a member of various Boards among them:
CURRENT
COMMITTEES/TRUSTS
She is also into consultancy mostly in the education field.
She has won several awards in recognition of her outstanding works of empowering women through education.
Awards:
Professor Sadza is married and has two children.
Chairperson & Co-Founder
Dr Fay Chung is co- founder and Chairperson Board of Trustees for Women’s University in Africa. A former Minister of Education Sports and Culture Dr Chung has been involved in a number of non-governmental organizations in Zimbabwe. An accomplished educationist and driver of women education, Dr Fay Chung has worked in the education system in a number of capacities. Dr Chung is a founder member of the Forum for African Women Educationalist and Association for Strengthening Higher Education for Women in Africa Dr Chung has been instrumental in the education of women in Africa. Dr Chung has worked in a number of international organizations which include UNESCO, UNICEF, OAU and AU. Dr Chung has several publications to her name which include the popular Re-Living the Second Chimurenga: Memories form Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle and The Nordic Africa Institute amongst others.
She was educated at the University of Zimbabwe, where she received her first degree (1962), her postgraduate Certificate in Education (1965) and her Doctorate (1999).
She also studied at Leeds University, where she obtained her M. Phil. In English Literature (1971) and has undertaken research at St Antony’s College, Oxford (1995). She diversified into economics and completed a distance-education degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in 2002. Following retirement she enrolled in an honours degree program in Economic at the University of Zimbabwe.
Dr Chung’s career has been almost exclusively in education. As an undergraduate she was involved in organising students to teach house servants and workers in the vicinity of the campus. One of the tasks was to eradicate illiteracy. She has always had a vision to provide leadership in Africa through access to relevant quality tertiary education.
From 1963 to 1968 Dr Chung taught at high schools levels at Ascot and Harare High Schools in Zimbabwe. While studying for her M. Phil. Degree at Leeds University, she taught as a part-time lecturer at Leeds Polytechnic and at the Kitson College of Engineering from October 1968 to June 1970. She was a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Zambia from 1971 to 1975. From 1975 to 1980 she worked fulltime for the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), in charge of teacher education and curriculum development for Zimbabwean refugees schools in Mozambique.
After Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, Dr Chung worked in various capacities in the Ministry of Education, including as the first acting director for the Zimbabwe Integrated National Teacher Education Course (ZINTEC), which was initiated at independence to train 9,000 primary teachers through a combination of face-to-face teaching and distance education; as head of educational planning in the ministry, with responsibility for planning the expansion for the primary, secondary and teacher training programs; as head of the curriculum development unit, tasked with transforming the curricula for primary and secondary schools; as deputy secretary in charge of school administration; and finally as minister of Education and Culture. She spent a total of 14 years in the government of Zimbabwe.
Dr Chung has been involved in a number of non-governmental organisations. She took part in the formation of the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (ZIMFEP), set up to provide education for war veterans and returning refugee children from Mozambique and Zambia. School leavers were assisted through placement in further training and in jobs, or through the establishment of cooperatives.
She has been a board member of the Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies (ZIDS). She is a founder member of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAEW), a network of education ministers, women university vice-chancellors and other women educational leaders in Africa, focused on strengthening the education of girls and women in Africa. Dr Chung is the founder member of the Association for Strengthening Higher Education for Women in Africa (ASHEWA).
Dr Chung’s work has an international dimension. She was a member of the Delors Commission Education and worked as the chief of the education cluster at UNICEF, New York (1993-98), then as the first director of the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) in Addis Ababa (1998-2003). Between 1998 and 2003 she served as an honorary special advisor to the Organisation of African Union (OAU) and later to the African Union (AU).
Dr Chung is a member of the Zimbabwe National Education Advisory Board as of 18 March 2009.
Publications
Chung Fay, ‘Re-Living the Second Chimurenga: Memories from Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle,’ The Nordic Africa Institute, Weaver Press 2006
