The role of universities in the development of smart cities. Case of Harare.

Abstract

The role of institution of higher education in smart city initiatives is increasing with government`s intervention in the increase of innovation hubs in Zimbabwe. Curriculum alignment through education 5.0 which includes innovation and industrialization is promoting an atmosphere for research and development (Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development, 2019). As a result, a principal component analyses approach was conducted in determining factors which enhance universities` engagement in smart city developments using varimax approach of rotation space (Mishra et al., 2017; Leech et al, 2020). Qualitative approach was conducted on 390 respondents from various universities in Zimbabwe where reliability tests indicated 83% degree at 95% confidence interval using Kaiser Meyer Olkin`s measure of selection adequacy (Bonett and Wright, 2015); (Taber, 2018) . Factors which enhance universities to take part in smart city initiatives were extracted which are smart city education, innovation hubs, financial institutions and government support (Ransom, 2015; Sambuli and Whitt, 2017).

Keywords

• smart city
• principal component analysis (pca)
• innovation hub
• government