He was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe in January 2003 and was subsequently reappointed for a second, third and a fourth term, the latter of which ended in mid 2018.

[1][2] Levi Nyagura holds a PhD in Mathematics from Southern Illinois University, USA.

[5] In 2015 Nyagura controversially fired a senior university staffer Senior Assistant Registrar Ngaatendwe Takawira for allegedly procuring a small cap for Robert Mugabe that failed to fit during a graduation ceremony he officiated as Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe in October 2015, a decision later reversed by a Zimbabwean court.

[6] Nyagura has been widely criticized for presiding over the University of Zimbabwe's demise, characterized by a failure to retain staff because of poor remuneration, politicization of the institution, purges of independent minded academics, and purges of senior academics who protested Nyagura's leadership style.

[7] He reportedly boasts of his penchant for firing staff and not renewing contracts.