To the students at Bunda College
by Greenwell Matchaya
Dear beloved students
This might sound unusual especially coming within this festive season however real learning doesn’t and mustn’t stop until you stop breathing (Lol).
You can, and should be proud that you have made it to a UNIMA college that is very good and progressive, with a reputation of producing some of the finest minds of our society. The fact that you have made it to Bunda is an indication that you can also ‘found’ in yourselves great leaders, entrepreneurs and researchers of the future.
As you are already aware there at Bunda you have programs that each of you belongs to such that some of you are pursuing BScs in Irrigation Engineering, Crops Sciences, Agribusiness, Agric Econs, Aqua-sciences, Social forestry, Animal science etc. These are fantastic programs that are tailor-designed to impart in you some of the rare core transferrable skills that you need for the future soon to come.
As a member of the Bunda alumni community I would like to advise you that if you can, then while pursuing you fantastic programs, and if circumstances permit you and if it is permissible, take some effort to audit (study even if the course won’t count in determining your degree)some carefully chosen courses across programs. This may be important because although your programs are undoubtedly professionally designed to make you future experts in your fields, you may find that it would still be value adding to take some courses in order to acquire that much needed broader view of issues.
For example (not that you must do this), while course such as Experimental design and analysis, Research methods, Econometrics are great tools for sciences and social sciences(economics), for both a science student and a social science student, there are gains to be had from having familiarity with both. Similarly, although mathematical skills imparted by a course in mathematics for economists are adequate for purposes of getting a degree in economics, it wouldn’t hurt one’s abilities if one decided to seek further familiarity with one or two seemingly more mathematical modules from the basic sciences or the engineering department if they are still offered. There also many other examples which you may have in mind too.
Of course it is important to remember that for most purposes your program performance is very important and so you cannot afford to compromise it. In view of this I would recommend auditing courses if and only if your intelligent assessment tells you that you won’t compromise your final degree grade. So, if you are a student whose GPA is in the dangerous margins, perhaps it is more important to work towards pushing it forward than to audit a course that may not have direct complementarities with courses you are yet to study in your program. However, if you are that student whose GPA is unlikely to change negatively once some time is allocated to the quest for further multidisciplinary knowledge, auditing courses might be a dynamically more helpful use of your time than Kachasu imbibing for example.
Auditing courses will make you readier to adapt to most environments and groups. With auditing, you should be able to listen and understand and contribute to talks from experts from many specialties without too much hassle, and you should also be able to do higher degrees in most other fields not directly related to your current field should need be. You should be able too, to work in any environment where people see, admire and reward knowledge even in the most difficult times.
Cheers and have a Happy 2011!
From the Desk of Mfumusaka
Berkshire, the United Kingdom
Feedback: matchayag@yahoo.co.uk
Dear beloved students
This might sound unusual especially coming within this festive season however real learning doesn’t and mustn’t stop until you stop breathing (Lol).
You can, and should be proud that you have made it to a UNIMA college that is very good and progressive, with a reputation of producing some of the finest minds of our society. The fact that you have made it to Bunda is an indication that you can also ‘found’ in yourselves great leaders, entrepreneurs and researchers of the future.
As you are already aware there at Bunda you have programs that each of you belongs to such that some of you are pursuing BScs in Irrigation Engineering, Crops Sciences, Agribusiness, Agric Econs, Aqua-sciences, Social forestry, Animal science etc. These are fantastic programs that are tailor-designed to impart in you some of the rare core transferrable skills that you need for the future soon to come.
As a member of the Bunda alumni community I would like to advise you that if you can, then while pursuing you fantastic programs, and if circumstances permit you and if it is permissible, take some effort to audit (study even if the course won’t count in determining your degree)some carefully chosen courses across programs. This may be important because although your programs are undoubtedly professionally designed to make you future experts in your fields, you may find that it would still be value adding to take some courses in order to acquire that much needed broader view of issues.
For example (not that you must do this), while course such as Experimental design and analysis, Research methods, Econometrics are great tools for sciences and social sciences(economics), for both a science student and a social science student, there are gains to be had from having familiarity with both. Similarly, although mathematical skills imparted by a course in mathematics for economists are adequate for purposes of getting a degree in economics, it wouldn’t hurt one’s abilities if one decided to seek further familiarity with one or two seemingly more mathematical modules from the basic sciences or the engineering department if they are still offered. There also many other examples which you may have in mind too.
Of course it is important to remember that for most purposes your program performance is very important and so you cannot afford to compromise it. In view of this I would recommend auditing courses if and only if your intelligent assessment tells you that you won’t compromise your final degree grade. So, if you are a student whose GPA is in the dangerous margins, perhaps it is more important to work towards pushing it forward than to audit a course that may not have direct complementarities with courses you are yet to study in your program. However, if you are that student whose GPA is unlikely to change negatively once some time is allocated to the quest for further multidisciplinary knowledge, auditing courses might be a dynamically more helpful use of your time than Kachasu imbibing for example.
Auditing courses will make you readier to adapt to most environments and groups. With auditing, you should be able to listen and understand and contribute to talks from experts from many specialties without too much hassle, and you should also be able to do higher degrees in most other fields not directly related to your current field should need be. You should be able too, to work in any environment where people see, admire and reward knowledge even in the most difficult times.
Cheers and have a Happy 2011!
From the Desk of Mfumusaka
Berkshire, the United Kingdom
Feedback: matchayag@yahoo.co.uk
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