Curricular changes in the Geology Department, University of Zimbabwe: towards a more vocational degree

Most students taking Geology at the University of Zimbabwe graduate with a B.Sc. General degree. Formerly, the role of this degree was to produce scho ol teachers and until the early 1990s this was the major area of employment . From 1992, the Geology Department changed its curriculum in an effort to make its graduates more marketable. At the same time, the mining industry w as expanding. Within a few years the employment situation for the students had dramatically changed - with over three-quarters of the B.Sc. graduates of the last three years finding employment as earth scientists. Students fr om all three undergraduate years now have more contact with industry, inclu ding a vacation placement scheme. University-based curricular changes have included a greater involvement with computers, the economic geology syllabu s has been revised and at third-year level the students are now able to dro p their second science subject in favour of three vocationally-orientated c ourses from other faculties. It remains to be seen how successful these cur ricular changes are in the longer term, without the benefit of a booming in dustry, but they should form a good basis for the future. Preliminary indic ations from the mining industry suggest that B.Sc. General graduates have t he potential to succeed in basic geological jobs, such as core logging and sampling, which have previously required an Honours degree as a minimum qua lification. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.