A NEW era is beckoning for the country’s tertiary education system as university authorities are planning to shift from mass production of graduates to quality that will help to drive industry and national development.

Vice chancellors from the country’s universities say it is time PhD students shift from the “recommendations based theses to a solution and innovative theses” for the development of the country.

Leading the debate in a review meeting of the delegation’s tour to some of the world’s thriving science and technology universities, University of Zimbabwe vice chancellor Professor Levi Nyagura said it’s high time screws were tightened in the country’s higher education system in order to adapt to the country’s industrial needs.

“The issue we have here is about what kind of a PhD are we producing. We are not looking for mass production. We are looking for quality production. I think we need to run away from mass production to quality production so that these people that we produce come up with tangible, visible measurable things and run away from recommendations which are practically useless,” said Prof Nyagura.

He said theses by PhD students must not provide solutions and recommendations which had become monotonous and irrelevant to today’s society.