Student Life

Academic year

The academic year runs from August to June, with graduation normally in August.

Residences

On main campus there are six residences for women: Carr-Saunders Hall, Swinton Hall and New Complexes 1,2,4 and Teachers Hall, and three residences for men: Manfred Hodson Hall, New Complex 3 and New Complex 5. New Hall is mixed and mainly reserved for international students. There is also the Medical Residence at the Medical School campus and Mount Royal Residence in the Avenues, in central Harare.

Sports, clubs and traditions

The university has a target of at least one current or former UZ student representing the country in a medal winning sports team in international competitions annually. Sport at UZ is centred on the Sports Pavilion, which was built with a donation from now National Breweries (now Delta). Sports offered at the university include athletics, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, netball, karate, chess, rugby and tennis, table tennis. UZ has frequently won the Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association Games; the UZ has been topping the ZUSA competitions for the past 5 years. In its early years, men's hockey was the premier sport, with a team in Salisbury's "First League" in 1960 - i.e., at a time when the national team was participating creditably in international events. The University of Zimbabwe Football Club plays in Zimbabwe's Division One and is the former home of Manchester City striker and former Zimbabwe national football team captain, Benjani Mwaruwari. The club was for a time coached by the late former President Canaan Banana. When Zimbabwe hosted the All-Africa Games in 1995, UZ was the games village. Maintenance of sporting facilities is the responsibility of the Director of Sport and Recreation Department.

In most departments there are subject–related clubs or societies, for example the Kirk Biological Society and the AIESEC and Rotaract Club, Theatre Arts Club and SIFE Enactus Club. In 2005, UZ won the Students in Free Enterprise (S.I.F.E) World Cup held in Ontario, Canada. There are also non–academic clubs such as Rotaract.