3 universities miss gender threshold in selection

 Three of the country’s six public universities have missed the 60:40 gender representation requirement in the Gender Equality Act in their 2023 admissions intake, The Nation analysis has established.

The analysis found the University of Malawi (Unima), Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) to have fallen short of the legal requirement aimed at narrowing the equality gap between men and women by increasing women’s chances of attaining leadership positions.

In the 2023 university intake announced on Tuesday where 8 552 have been selected to public universities, Unima has 61 percent male students and 39 percent female students while Must has 69 percent male students.

Luanar, on the other hand, has 70 percent male representation against 30 percent for female students.

The situation is contrary to Section 16 of the Gender Equality Act which provides that “enrollment at tertiary education institutions of either sex to a minimum of forty percent and a maximum of 60 percent”.

But in an interview yesterday, Ministry of Educat ion Pr incipal Secretary Chikondano Mussa said the selection of the students is merit-based and that within the merit there is affirmative action.

She said: “That is what we were able to get from the schools that were there. Still, some of the selection criteria already have an inbuilt mechanism to ensure that girls are selected alongside boys using affirmative action.

“I advise girls to work hard. As much as the Gender Equality Act stipulates the 60:40 requirement, it’s not like you can do the balancing up automatically. We also have to demonstrate that we are meeting the minimum standard to be selected.”

Commenting on the development, gender activist Barbara Banda said there is need to understand the underlying factors which lead to challenges in enrolling at tertiary level.

She said: “Right from school enrolment at primary level and secondary level, access to education for the girl-child remains a challenge because of pre-existing gender roles, distance to school.

“In some cases, poor nutrition and at secondary school level access to menstrual hygiene facilities adds on to the previous challenges and also as girls

 grow they assume mother’s roles which makes their time contribution to studies limited.”

However, overall the university selection has a gender parity of 59.7 percent male and 40.3 percent female students.

In the selection, Mzuzu Univer s i t y, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences meeting the 60:40 threshold as required by the Act.

On Tuesday this week, the Ministry of Education announced the selection of a record 8 552 students to the country’s six public universities in the 2022/23 academic year.

The ministry also indicated that the selection, administered by the National Council for Higher Education, was on merit basis.

The number of selected students represents a 14.4 percent increase from last year’s 7 473. However, the selection has left around 10 000 eligible students as 18 471 were eligible.

The ministry further stated that the number of selected students could swell further as special needs students and those selected through other modes such as Open Distance eLearning and Mature Entry are currently under consideration by the universities.