Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya has urged university students to embrace research and innovation in their studies saying it will be a great contribution in the country’s development.
Speaking at the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), Mvurya said that universities play a critical role in training experts noting that the government seeks efforts to ensure that industry and academia have a good blend where academic research and innovation become available for implementation by different government agencies.
He said the country has a large young population with the government hopeful that students studying at the university will go ahead and provide solutions and technology that will not only provide solutions to Kenyan people, but also cut across the entire globe.
In support of the research and innovation sector, the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) in collaboration with the Kenya Maritime Authority and the Swahili port hub launched its 5th multi-disciplinary conference and innovation week.
The 5 day forum themed “from idea to impact: igniting cross sector innovation to shape a sustainable future” aims at encouraging students to turn their creative ideas into job opportunities.
In addition, the CS also announced five scholarship opportunities for the top marine students in the institution as a way of ensuring the maritime and blue economy sector becomes the new frontier that will inspire the economy and also create new experts through training.
The sub-themes of the forum include, transformative education, business and entrepreneurship, health and food security, digital creative economy and contemporary societies, engineering, technology and sustainable environment and the blue economy and maritime affairs.
The CS noted that with the use of ICT, students will manage to run their projects smoothly via the government’s effort in enabling different parts of the country to access internet connection through the 100,000km of fiber optic cable and 25,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots.
On her hand, Professor Leyla Abubakar, the Vice Chancellor TUM said that the cross-sector innovation allows students to liberate the unique strength of each sector to address complex challenges more effectively.
“For example, businesses can bring their expertise in technology and market driven solutions and the government can provide regulatory support,” she said.
She added that economic freedom is intricately tied to innovation and job creation thus the core to cultivate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Our education system must nurture a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. We must allow our students to convert ideas into invoices. We do not want to bring out products who will now be job seekers instead of job creators,” she said.
The forum is set to end on Saturday this week.
By Chari Suche and Nuru Soud
