Engage in Research, “give rise to something new”: Catholic Archbishop to University Students in Mozambique

Beira, 08 May, 2024 / 4:38 PM

University students have to go beyond class lessons and engage in research so they can contribute to the creation of new knowledge, Archbishop Claudio Dalla Zuanna of Mozambique’s Catholic Archdiocese of Beira has said.

Archbishop Zuanna, who was preaching at the May 5 celebration of the sixth edition of the Inter-University Easter Festival at the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM), said that while a university is a place where, like a school, learning takes place, more is expected of university students than merely receiving information.

“At a university, what is communicated to us, what we learn must be worked on, must be shaped by ourselves, and must give rise to something new,” the Argentine member of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (SCI) said.

He emphasized the need for university students to engage in critical thinking and research. He said, “The teaching process for university students is not about simply reproducing knowledge, but about producing new knowledge through research.”

“You must use the knowledge acquired at university to produce new things,” the Archbishop of Beira since his Episcopal Consecration in October 2012 said.

He continued, “If you're a student, if you're a teacher, you think that university is just about communicating something that someone has said, listening to someone who has said it, you're not really a teacher or a university student.” 

“In a university, the information we receive from our teachers meets with us, with our reflection, with our sensitivity, and from this encounter it helps us to give birth to something new, something that didn't exist that we hadn't thought of, or that other people hadn't thought of,” he said. 

Good university students and lecturers, Archbishop Zuanna went on to say, subject what they hear in class and read to critical analysis. 

Failure to be critical could also reflect failure in Christian witness “because there will be no newness” and “won't be open to looking for newness of life.”