The extent to which universities have embraced technology in service delivery: A comparative study of NUST (Zimbabwe) and university of Venda (RSA)

Abstract

Information Communication Technologies have greatly impacted the education sector over the years leading to electronic service delivery. Universities all over the world are embracing Information Communication Technologies especially the internet, creating websites, making use of web 2.0 applications, that is, social networks and moving their services from manual based to electronic platforms. The study was comparative, looking extent to which the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) (Zimbabwe) and the University of Venda (RSA) have embraced ICTs in the conduct of business and how this has impacted on their service delivery. Universities have embraced ICTs in different levels, according to their capacity in terms of finances, human resources, institutional capacity and other variables. A combination of web content analysis and a comparative study of the web presence of the two universities was done which revealed that the universities are present on some web 2.0 applications though not fully exploiting all the functions. Websites for both universities were carefully analysed and the results showed that online service delivery was growing yet in need of full implementation and use. It is therefore recommended that these universities adopt online service delivery to enhance and develop lives of the university community.