UCM Pemba, Moçambique

FACULTY OF TOURISM MANAGEMENT & INFORMATICS of the CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of MOZAMBIQUE Pemba, Cabo Delgado

Zeininger architects, Vienna developed the concept to transform the new Faculty of Tourism Management & Informatics into a multi-functional UCM Convention Centre Pemba for education, business and leisure – to meet the vision of the UCM for regional development & standards.

The Context

While Pemba and its surrounding region offer ideal conditions for tourism, a brand new faculty facilitates the introduction of the best tested pedagogical methodology of university formation, the methodology of the Problem Based Learning (PBL), centred on the student, his learning processes and needs. In the case of the formation of tourism personnel, this methodology requires the creation of conditions that allow the student to practice and test the basic tenets of his profession through the daily tasks he performs in the ordinary running of a Hotel School and Restaurant, attached to the Faculty of Tourism, Management and Informatics, foreseen in the project here submitted.

The Hotel School and Restaurant, besides providing the conditions necessary for a more practical and complete formation of the future graduates of the Faculty of Tourism, Management and Informatics, is also expected to contribute to defray the expenses of the faculty and to create a space for business initiatives and the formation of ancillary personnel for the tourism industry through a multifunctional complex and short courses at the service of the local community.

Description of the Project in its Totality

The Project "Faculdade de Turismo, Gestão e Informática" consists of three essential and interdependent components:

  1. Rehabilitation and adaptation of the left wing of the building to host the faculty; provision of furniture and equipment for lecture rooms, offices, library and computer laboratory; acquisition of books, audiovisuals and computers; recruitment of faculty staff, lecturers and students; identification and training of future faculty lecturers through provision of scholarships for their specialisation in renown universities in the area of Tourism and Computer Science; short courses and training on Problem Based Learning for the current lecturers; use of consultants for designing and improving of the concept that inspires the project.


  2. Rehabilitation and adaptation of the right wing, to become the school of hotel services and tourism, with a restaurant, kitchen, conference room and 16 rooms. This second component includes the rehabilitation and restructuring of 2,623 square meters of which 50% consist of verandas and backyard.


  3. Equipment for the right wing of the building according to the requirements demanded by the restructuring and pre-established ends for the use of the right wing of the building with kitchen equipment, restaurant, furniture for bedrooms and conference rooms, and audiovisuals.


Objectives

The project of a Faculty of Tourism, Management and Computer Science in Pemba, Cabo Delgado Province, has the following key objectives:

  1. Offer courses at degree level in Tourism and Management and in Computer Science, primarily for the young men and women of Northern Mozambique;


  2. Contribute to reduce the regional and gender disparities in the access to higher education;


  3. Introduce a methodology of professional training focused on the student, the Problem Based Learning, from the very beginning of this new Faculty, and invest in human resources, in the necessary teaching aids and in practical sessions in the School of Hotel & Restaurant attached to the Faculty of Tourism, so that this methodology can be implemented during the entire curriculum foreseen for the Faculty;


  4. Prepare graduates who will be fluent in the main languages of their profession in Mozambique, namely Portuguese and English;


  5. Provide short courses for professional training and workshops for hotel and restaurant personnel and for tourism managers in the Northern region;


  6. Offer to interested parties adequate facilities for conferences, workshops, and office space;


  7. Promote opportunities for investment to the business community in the multifunctional centre, and in the Faculty hotel;


  8. Create conditions for income generation aimed at promoting the Faculty's self-sufficiency.


History of the initiative

In February 2002, the UCM Rector went to Pemba in order to attend a meeting with Cabo Delgado's Provincial Governor and with the Bishop of Pemba. From that meeting resulted the decision to open the Faculty of Tourism, Management and Computer Science in the facilities of the Diocese's Seminary in Pemba, recently given back to the Diocese, and offered to UCM by the Bishop of that city.

In April, the consultants Zeininger architects from Vienna visited Pemba and drafted a plan for the rehabilitation and renovation of the buildings in order to meet the requirements of a Faculty of Tourism, Management and Computer Science with a School of Hotel & Restaurant within a multi-functional complex.

This concept was presented for the first time to the public with the participation of UCM in the First Tourism Fair in the beginning of August in Maputo with the support of FUTUR. His Excellency the Minister of Tourism visited and praised the initiative during the Fair's grand opening.

In May, a contractor who is supervising the construction and rehabilitation of the installations of the UCM, travelled with his team to Pemba where they started the rehabilitation, adaptation and furnishing of one of the wings of the building, which they did within the required time for the opening of the Faculty in mid-September this year.

In the beginning of June, a graduate from UCM's Faculty of Economics and Management, holding a MBA degree from Africa University in Mutare, (Zimbabwe) arrived in Pemba to coordinate the designing of the curricula for the Probation Year of the new faculty, setting up the library and the computer laboratory, selecting and registering the candidates for the Probation Year, and recruiting the lecturers.

With help from the government's Department of Tourism in Cabo Delgado, two people from Pemba with the required background were identified in June, to benefit from a scholarship at the renown Klessheim Institute of Tourism and Hotelier in Austria for one year, through a programme funded by the Austrian Cooperation. In early September the applications were approved and the two candidates will participate, starting in October of 2002, respectively, in the course of tourism and in the course of hotelier. At their return in June 2003, these two graduates will be part of the teaching staff in the courses of their competence.

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