Faculty Research Week 2011

4^th Research Week 2011

Faculty of Agriculture Research Day

Sustainable Approaches to Agriculture and Food Security -08 September 2011

The University of Mauritius 4th Research Week 2011 has been scheduled for 05 – 09 September 2011.

The Research Week aims to provide a consolidated platform for staff, students and researchers to interact and carry out peer discussions of ongoing or emerging research. The objectives of the Research Week are two-pronged. In the first instance, it aims to showcase ongoing research being carried out at inter and intra-departmental levels. In the long term, the Research Week also plans to act as a springboard in order to launch viable individual or collaborative projects.

The innovation of the 2011 Edition of the Research week is that respective faculties will have a dedicated research day to encourage wider participation. Moreover, much emphasis is also laid on collaborative research projects and a sizeable funding has been allocated from the University Research Fund to assist viable projects emanating from the research day. In addition, an eventual special issue of the UoM journal consisting of selected and refereed papers will be compiled and made available after the research week.

The organising committee invites work in progress, conceptual, empirical research presentations, and/or country context case studies, thus enabling researchers to showcase their research potential in their relevant fields. Delegates are invited to present completed research projects or work in progress. Submissions and presentations can also address both the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.The innovation of the 2011 edition of the Research Week is that respective Faculties will have a dedicated research day to encourage wider participation of staff and students alike.

The Faculty of Agriculture Research Day is scheduled for Thursday 08 September 2011.

The Faculty Theme for this year is: Sustainable Approaches to Agriculture and Food Security. The Faculty Research Day aims to provide a consolidated platform for staff, students and researchers to interact and carry out peer discussions of ongoing or emerging research. It aims also at showcasing the ongoing research activities and capabilities at the Faculty. It is an opportunity for the Faculty to showcase its potential and to highlight innovative, viable, long-term projects The emphasis of the Faculty Research Day is to build links and networks between service providers and researchers.

Our major stakeholders and prospective students will be invited to participate in the event. We hope that you will take this opportunity and embrace this initiative which is provided by the Faculty Research Day to present your research outcomes and possible avenues for future work.

Faculty of Agriculture: Faculty Orientation Day for 2011

Faculty of Agriculture: Faculty Orientation Day for 2011

Guest - Dr. V. Tatayah Speech

Address by Dr Vikash Tatayah

Induction Session Yr 2011/12

Introductory remarks

• In his welcoming address Dr. Vikash Tatayah thanked the Dean, Assoc Prof Driver and the Head of Departments for inviting him to address the new batch of students joining the Faculty for the academic year 2011/2012 and expressed his gratitude to all the staff for giving him this opportunity and honour to address the future resources of the Republic.

• Dr Tatayah graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Agriculture in 1996.  He worked at the FAIL group before joining the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation where he is now the conservation manager.  He is particular glad to have done all his studies at the University and indeed he obtained his PhD form the Faculty of Science in July 2011.

He stressed on several points related to the Faculty development  

·         The Faculty has stood the test of time. Indeed the faculty will celebrate its centenary in 2014.

·         Has played a key role in training the agricultural scientists, which plays vital role in developing the agricultural sector of this country.

·         The Faculty of Agriculture has had eminent lecturers such as Paul Octave Wiehe. Dr Orian and lately Dr D.R.Venkatasamy.

·         The teaching& technical staff  has great human qualities and are valuable mentors.

·         He explained the role of external examiners, from reputable universities abroad, plays in assuring quality of our degree programmes.  

·         The degrees awarded by the university are internationally recognized and the students can at a later stage embark on higher studies abroad. 

In his personal advice to students, he encouraged them to

·         Grow and blossom,  

·         Expand their  horizons,

·         Come out of their shells,  

·         Explore news ideas, questions and don’t take for granted any concepts,

·         Develop their personality.

·         He reminded the students that it’s at the university that they have the chance of developing their professional aptitude and talent to be leaders of tomorrow in whatever field they will embrace. He gave an example of one of their lecturers who always used to refer to them as managers.  In those days, they had very little faith in themselves, and used to take his predictions with a pinch of salt.  But the truth is that most of the students of his cohort are now project and research managers n the agricultural and allied fields. 

·         The University is also a place where you can develop long lasting friendships

·         Participate in extra-curriculum-activities.  He remarked that there is now a better campus life than in his days at the university.

Value of the Degree

• He nevertheless noted that not all is perfect at the university.  However he wished that the university helps the students to develop their personalities in a better way. Despite this, he emphasized that the University of Mauritius is providing great value for the money the students pay. He forcefully said that nowhere else you can graduate with a BSc for 42,000 MUR annually and on top of that to be awarded a degree that match international standards. 

• He encouraged the students to go to foreign university after their undergraduates’ degrees to broaden up one’s horizons, appreciate the worth of the university where they first graduated and to be exposed to new way of thinking that will help agricultural development in Mauritius.

In his concluding remarks, he enumerated a few challenges that we will have to face and the onus is on the present generation to come up with innovative ways to deal with them. Some of the issues he mentioned were  as follows: 

·         How to make l’industrie canniere survive and continue to fulfill a major economic role? 

·         How to be less reliant on food imports and to increase food security?  How to produce healthy agricultural products using less and less or no agrochemicals? 

·         How to plant sugarcane for bagasse and charcoal? 

·         How to overcome climate change that affects agriculture,

·         Development of organic agriculture.  

Student Union Speeches

SPEECH of PRESIDENT of UoM STUDENT UNION

Let me first on behalf of the students' Union welcome you to UOM and in particular to the Faculty of Agriculture.

Faculty Orientation Day for 2011

New Cohort of Students

The Faculty of Agriculture had an orientation session on Tuesday 2 August for the new students.

It was attended by the Vice Chancellor Prof K. Morgan, the President of the Student Union and our guest and alumni Dr. V.Tatayah.

 In his welcoming speech, the VC stressed that we have brilliant academic staff and administrative staff upon which the students should rely on to gain knowledge and skills and to make their life easy during their studies.

The Dean emphasized the need for the student to acquaint themselves with this new world and to make most of their stay at the Faculty. Link to her speech.

Both president and the Faculty representative gave a warm welcome to all of them and drew their attention to the role of the Student Union and their roles as well. Link to their speeches.

Dr Tatayah gave an inspiring speech to the young students by drawing upon his own experience and career path.
He encouraged the students to learn and unlearn concepts and to have strong belief in themselves. In his concluding remarks, he highlighted the challenges the Mauritian Agriculture and how trained manpower of this generation  can attend these challenges. He ended by wishing all plenty of success in their studies and especially the Faculty which will celebrate its centenary in 2014. Link to his speech.

Academic Staff 2011