Registrar of Zimbabwe Open University visits OUM Perak

On June 26 2010, OUM Perak was given the privilege to host Mr. Daniel Ndudzo, the Registrar of Zimbabwe Open University. He was on a mission to learn more about how OUM operates in Malaysia and in International markets. Prior to this visit Mr. Daniel was briefed by the respective heads of department from OUM main campus.

Mr. Daniel signing the guest book under the watchful eyes of Richard Ng

Briefing and discussion with Mr. Daniel Ndudzo

His visit to Ipoh is to find out how a regional center provides support to its students and how we cope with various issues such as plagiarism, tutors commitment to learners, exam management, registration of students, marketing, faculty support, learning modules and student access to Internet.


The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly known as Rhodesia) is located north of South Africa where the world cup soccer tournament is being held, also bordered by Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. Distance between Zimbabwe and Malaysia is about 10,000km. It has a population of about 12 million in 2009. It has the highest adult literacy rate in Africa at 90%.

Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) was established in 1999 and is the only distance education university in Zimbabwe. It has 11 regional learning centers with more than 30,000 students currently. It is also using blended learning pedagogy with some face-to-face contact and internet support.

One for the album

The most common problems found in ZOU as with other distance education universities is attrition. Factors contributing to such attrition include transportation and Internet.

Tour of Greenhill Learning Center

Arriving at Perak Learning Center (Lim Bo Seng)

The half day discussion held between Mr. Daniel Ndudzo and Richard Ng, Director of OUM Perak was very fruitful. The discussion has led to more follow up on exchange of information and knowledge between ZOU and OUM especially on student retention strategies. He was given a tour of our premise at Greenhill Learning Center as well as Perak Learning Center at Jln Lim Bo Seng.

Mr. Daniel was also treated with some local dishes and had a good taste of our local fruit, durian. He was also taken to visit to city of Ipoh and had a chance to visit one of Ipoh's highest cave temple located near the Lost World of Tambun.