Unima meets on ’varsity delinking
The University of Malawi (Unima) Council is today scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the way forward following President Peter Mutharika’s endorsement to delink constituent colleges from the country’s oldest public university.
The President’s approval comes after months of debate on whether to make Unima’s four constituent colleges—Chancellor College, The Polytechnic, College of Medicine (CoM) and Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN)—stand-alone public universities.
An Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) source yesterday confided in The Nation that Mutharika has approved the popular proposal to delink the colleges from the first public university established in 1965.
Said the source: “Yes, the President has approved that the process can now begin… But the University Council will make an official announcement because this decision was made by them and they appraised their Chancellor [the President] for approval.
“Basically, the President is considering the issue of access to public institutions of higher learning. Once this delinking is done and the colleges become independent universities, they will grow, increase their numbers and the country’s public universities intake.”
But State House director of communications Bright Molande yesterday said he was not aware of the development, referring The Nation to Unima Council chairperson Dr James Maida.
He said: “But I would not be surprised [that the President has approved] but the decision would have to be announced procedurally.”
However, Molande said it was expected the completion of the process, which began with academic communities across the colleges, would go through the council then Parliament to legislate new Acts.
When contacted, Maida could neither confirm nor dispute the President’s approval, saying the council will comment after today’s extraordinary meeting.
He said: “The council is meeting tomorrow [today] afternoon then we will be able to brief you.”
During Unima’s 50th anniversary celebrations held at CoM in Blantyre, the President said he would not stand in the way of those who wanted Unima to unbundle.
Proponents of the Unima split argue that the university had overgrown and it was becoming difficult for authorities to effectively manage its affairs from the University Office in Zomba.
According to the Unima Act, Section 10 (j), the council has powers, after consultations with the Senate, to establish, institute or discontinue colleges, faculties, schools or such other academic sections to specialised college.
The pending delinking exercise of Unima will be the second after Bunda College of Agriculture (Bunda) in 2011 which merged with the Natural Resources College (NRC) to become Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar).
Reacting to the development, education rights activist Benedicto Kondowe applauded Mutharika’s move, describing it as progressive development.
He said: “I hope that this particular nod will demand that all parties be sober and more constructive in determining how the exercise will be done and what kind of structures and modalities need to be put in place.”
On July 10 2017, Unima Council unanimously settled for the proposal to delink the colleges so that they become independent like Luanar.
After Nation Online (www.mwnation.com) broke the news, readers had diverse views on the matter with some commending the President and others hoping that the move would improve management and also help the colleges to raise funds for themselves.
“Good development. Let people with brains now be at the helm of each university. We want massive expansion and diversity in each university,” wrote Brave Tembo @BraveTem
Other educational commentators have also argued that delinking of the colleges would make them more efficient as their growth is currently being impeded by unnecessary bureaucracy.
Until the founding of Mzuzu University (Mzuni) in 1997 which accepted its first students in 1999, Unima was the country’s only public university.
Currently, the country has four functional public universities, namely Unima, Mzuni, Luanar and the newest Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) in Thyolo.
