Higher education institutions in the country, the University of Zimbabwe in particular, have lost their status as academic institutions ready to offer a haven for constructive criticism of government excesses, writes Tapera Kapuya, the former Secretary General of the University of Zimbabwe Student Union. 'Bomber' militia run university security. Students are harassed and beaten with apparent impunity. Members of the secret police watch dissident lecturers and students, and armed riot police are ready to pounce at any slightest show of discontent by members of the academic community. As Brian Raftopoulos, a professor at the university’s institute of development studies and chair of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee, said in his Canon Collins Memorial Lecture in London last week, its academics are polarised between adjuncts to the Zanu PF propaganda machine and critics of the regime.