Abstract:

The role of universities in promoting Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development has attracted much interest among researchers worldwide. These Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) constitute several governments’ grand strategies of promoting the development of small businesses. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in promoting the development of SMEs in Zimbabwe. Interpretivism was adopted as a philosophy to guide the study. The study adopted a qualitative approach in which data collection was conducted through in-depth interviews. Respondents were drawn from six state universities through convenience and purposive sampling. Data analysis was conducted through content analysis. The results of the study revealed that the HEIs are promoting the development of SMEs through technology transfer, workshops on SMEs, short courses for small businesses and providing consultancy services. Furthermore, HEIs also provide skilled manpower for SMEs, and Entrepreneurship courses in the curriculum to create an entrepreneurial spirit among students. The study recommends that sector-specific training programmes must be provided for manufacturing, retail and services sectors. Additionally, the curriculum needs to be reviewed such that Entrepreneurship becomes a core module in all degree programmes to further promote an entrepreneurship culture among students and produce graduates that have an entrepreneurial mindset. Incubation centres also need to be established at universities to reduce the risk of failure among SMEs. Universities should partner with government ministries and the industry to effectively support the development of SMEs in Zimbabwe.

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