The idea of a University in the Midlands dates back to the foundation of the National University of Science and Technology when Gweru, which was identified as a possible site for a second university campus in the country, lost its bid to Bulawayo. Two other opportunities to host institutions of higher learning (the Open University and the Catholic University) were also missed by the Midlands Province when the two universities went to Harare instead. It was amid such disappointments that two initiatives gradually converged to give birth to what has since become the Midlands State University. His Excellency, President R G Mugabe, on the nudging of the Provincial political leadership of the Midlands, accepted the idea of a national university being built in the Midlands.