When Professor Andrew Niikondo stood before the crowd at the Namibia University of Science and Technology’s lower campus on Tuesday morning, the acting vice-chancellor did what few university leaders have dared to do in front of government ministers: he pointed at the empty buildings surrounding them and asked for them back.
“I request the government to allocate these buildings to NUST for student accommodation,” Niikondo said, gesturing toward the government offices dotted around the Windhoek campus. “There are so many government buildings in and around the campus or the regions which are dormant or unutilised.”
The request, delivered during the official opening of the 2026 academic year, represents what may become one of the most significant shifts in how Namibia approaches its persistent student housing crisis. And remarkably, within hours, it received what amounted to an on-the-spot commitment from two cabinet ministers present at the ceremony.
“We are dually authorized to represent both the minister of works, Honorable Nekundi, and my minister of education, Honorable Dr Steenkamp,” responded Deputy Minister of Education Dino Ballotti from the podium. “I can say bring the document so that I sign!”
The exchange, almost conversational in its spontaneity, masked a deeper transformation underway in Namibian higher education – one that extends far beyond the headline-grabbing announcement of subsidized tertiary education that dominated news coverage this week.
Behind the scenes, NUST is quietly engineering a fundamental reimagining of what a university in Namibia should look like, moving from a Windhoek-centric institution to one with physical footprints in regions that have never hosted university campuses. The plan, revealed in fragments across multiple speeches at Tuesday’s ceremony, includes new campuses in Eenhana and Otavi, renovations in Katima Mulilo and Rundu, and an academic ambition that Niikondo encapsulated in seven words: “I believe this year we will be among the top 10 universities in Africa.”
The Eenhana equation
The story of NUST’s regional expansion begins, somewhat improbably, with a former president’s displeasure.
Deputy Minister Ballotti recounted to the assembled crowd how former President Hifikepunye Pohamba had expressed frustration at the 2025 NUST graduation in Eenhana that construction on the planned campus there had not yet begun.
“I was given a ‘Nelulu I am not happy’ type speech,” Ballotti recalled, using an Oshiwambo phrase that conveyed the former president’s deep dissatisfaction.
That frustration has now translated into action. According to Niikondo, construction on the Eenhana campus in the Ohangwena Region will begin before June 2026. Simultaneously, work will start on a new NUST Agriculture Campus at Otavi in the Otjozondjupa Region, while regional centers in Katima Mulilo and Rundu undergo renovation.
The timing is not coincidental. With the introduction of subsidized tertiary education for first degrees, announced formally in December 2025 and implemented this year, NUST enrollment has surged to 22,718 students. Among them are 93 students from marginalized communities – 51 Ovahimba, 18 Ovazemba, and 24 San students who, under previous conditions, might never have set foot on a university campus.
“Most importantly, this year we enrolled 93 students at NUST from marginalised communities,” Niikondo emphasized, drawing applause from the crowd.
But access without accommodation creates its own crisis. Hence the bold request for government buildings.
The architecture of innovation
The empty government buildings proposal, while practical, represents something deeper: a recognition that Namibia’s development challenges require solutions that transcend traditional departmental boundaries.
Minister of Works and Transport Veikko Nekundi, delivering the keynote address at the same ceremony, framed this explicitly. “Infrastructure is not just concrete and steel; it is the backbone of national development,” he told the students. “And behind every successful infrastructure project is knowledge; knowledge cultivated in institutions like NUST.”
The synergy between his ministry and the university is no accident. Nekundi, whose portfolio includes the physical infrastructure NUST depends upon, used his speech to directly connect the university’s educational mission to Namibia’s development agenda.
“Roads are not merely strips of asphalt; they are arteries of economic growth. Ports are not merely structures; they are gateways to opportunity,” he said. “These projects require engineers, planners, technologists, data analysts, project managers, environmental specialists, and policy experts. They require problem-solvers. They require you.”
It is a vision of higher education as economic development strategy – one that NUST is now operationalizing through curriculum reforms aimed at emerging sectors including oil and gas, nuclear energy, biomass, mineral beneficiation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and space sciences.
The global in the local
Perhaps the most surprising element of NUST’s 2026 vision is its international dimension. During the first semester alone, nine academic experts from international universities will be embedded within NUST faculties, contributing to teaching, research, and curriculum development.
“Their presence reflects the growing recognition of NUST as a credible academic partner on the global stage,” Niikondo noted.
That credibility received quantitative validation this year when NUST ranked 46th in the inaugural QS World University Rankings for sub-Saharan Africa, placing it among the top 50 universities in a region encompassing more than 1,000 institutions.
It is a far cry from the institution’s polytechnic origins, and a testament to what Niikondo called “the transformation from a polytechnic into a university of science and technology” – a journey that began just ten years ago.
The student in the equation
Amid the grand visions of campuses and rankings, the speeches returned repeatedly to the students themselves – particularly the first-years navigating the transition to university life.
Ballotti, a University of Namibia alumnus who confessed that “we didn’t quite like Nust folks back in my day,” delivered perhaps the most direct advice to the Class of 2026.
“Turning up is half the battle won,” he told them. “Make your families super proud of you, break the cycles, prove to yourselves that you can be great.”
He warned against defining success solely through academic symbols. “Symbols do not define us. I repeat you are not defined by your A’s or B’s, you are defined by your resilience, by your character and by just being a good human beings.”
To the young men in the audience, he offered pointed counsel: “Don’t become dads, not yet, educate yourselves, make some money and then become dads. And if you are dads already, double down and lock in as you are now responsible for another human being.”
Nekundi, speaking more formally, framed the students’ role in national terms. “Namibia’s future highways, smart cities, modernised rail systems, efficient ports, and safe aviation networks will be designed and managed by graduates like you,” he said. “The decisions you make today – to study diligently, to innovate boldly, and to act ethically – will shape the Namibia we hand to future generations.”
The unfinished revolution
Yet for all the optimism, the speeches acknowledged uncomfortable truths. The subsidized tertiary funding model, Ballotti stressed, “is not a finished product. It is a baby that we are nurturing, it requires continuous assessment and refinement.”
Postgraduate qualifications are not yet subsidized, though he indicated this would come. Work Integrated Learning programmes, compulsory for all NUST students, face employer reluctance – including from government – to take students for internships. Some organizations, Niikondo noted, “may take students for experiential learning simply to involve them in irrelevant activities, which can have little impact on the student’s job experience.”
And then there is the accommodation crisis, which the government buildings proposal seeks to address.