Harmonisation of university selection

Let the year 2015 bring sanity where necessary and let it be a year where a spade must be known by its real name. In 2006, after noticing that the then two public universities (Unima and Mzuni) had a double selection problem where one student was admitted to both universities in the same academic year, I played the role of a responsible concerned citizen.

I was just coming out of Zingwangwa Secondary School to join the University of Malawi (Unima), but I gathered courage to go to the university central administration office in Zomba where I met the then assistant registrar Anitta Chivwara. I suggested to her that there should be one umbrella body to do the selection into public universities, to which she said that it will be difficult because Unima and Mzuni were established under different Acts of Parliament.

Aweek later, I went up North and met Mr Ngwira, the then acting Mzuni registrar whom I offered the same suggestion. The response here also did not convince me. Mr Ngwira

further said they do not have control over a student enrolled at Mzuni and then offered a place at Unima.

That time, Mzuni used to be the first to do its selection and they were starting the academic year in good time, somewhere in March. Unima would release its selection in August and some students admitted to Mzuni in March would be found on the Unima selection list. They then would flock to Unima after collecting book allowances (known as Sacco) from Mzuni and when they got to Unima, they would collect another book and stationary allowance from the Public University Students Loan Trust. It reached a point where a class at Mzuni remained with 20 percent of students after 80 percent of the students had left for Unima.

Fast-forward to 2011, I became vice-president of University of Malawi Students Union (Umsu). Using this platform, I revived my suggestion to some officials I met at National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). Unfortunately, this time NCHEwas just rolling out and my suggestion remained a beautiful castle in the air. I then went for further studies abroad and returned last year when Malawi has four public universities, including Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) and Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must). I had the privilege to go through 2014/2015 first year generic selection list for Luanar and Unima. About 400 students who were on Luanar selection list were also on the Unima selection list. I even heard that some names also appeared on the list of Must and I read that Mzuni cancelled its selection upon noticing the same double selection problem.

Now towards the very end of 2014, NCHEpublished a press release which showed that they have initiated a harmonised student selection process into public universities beginning with the 2015/2016 intake. NCHEfurther indicated that one of its aims is to harmonise student selection into public higher education institutions. When I read this, I was happy, believing this could be the end of the double selection problem which leads to some students being picked by more than two universities, thereby barring other students the opportunity of securing a place at a public university.

Each year, over 10 000 Malawian students who sit Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations qualify for admission to university, but very few make it due to limited space available in public universities. Thus, the duplication of students names in the university selection just worsens the situation, denying some students the opportunity for admission to public universities.

While I welcome the NCHEidea of harmonisation, some quarters are faulting it. For instance, one Chancellor College lecturer was quoted in the newspapers, prophesying doom on NCHEif it will not take care of the Acts of Parliament to which these institutions stand on. He thus described the harmonisation move as ill-timed.

But for the sake of sanity, let harmonisation be implemented.

—The author is a poet, he once served as vice president of University of Malawi Students Union.