The campus, with a capacity for 3,000 students, will cover an area of 8.2 hectares, including lecture rooms, language laboratories and computer rooms, an administrative block ad office space for the teaching staff.
Currently ISRI operates from cramped premises in two central Maputo buildings one of which belongs to the National Meteorological Institute. Between 900 and 1,000 students are currently studying at ISRI for degrees in international relations and public administration.
The ISRI Vice-Chancellor, Jamisse Taimo, said the new campus will allow a great increase in the number of students. The current ISRI headquarters will be transformed into a unit for postgraduate studies.
Addressing the ceremony. Education Minister Aires Aly said "We want to establish conditions so that higher education can function decently. ISRI plays an important role in training the cadres who can assist the country in the processes of regional and global integration".
Although the official ceremony took place on Thursday, in fact construction began last year, and is now quite well advanced. The first phase, due to conclude in October, is budgeted at 6.6 million US dollars, of which only three million are currently available.
Aires Aly promised that the government would seek outside support for the second phase which will increase the number of lecture rooms, as well as proving a conference hall, a library, a refectory, and a space where ISRI's specialist unit, the Centre for Strategic Studies, will operate.
SOURCE: AIM
