President Lazarus Chakwera has asked graduates to be innovative and productive to help turn around the country’s economy.
Speaking yesterday during Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) sixth congregation at Ndata in Thyolo, he said his administration is transforming Malawi from being a consuming economy to a producing one.
Chakwera said the country expects graduates, including those that have just graduated to be a leading example of his philosophy.
He said: “This is why in my second term as President, I have resolved that no-one in this nation must be allowed to receive a service from government without producing anything with it or in exchange.
“A country in which the government gives and gives without expecting its citizens to produce anything with what is given is a nation doomed to fail because that is a nation being trained to kill industry, a nation being trained to kill innovation, a nation being trained to kill production, a nation being trained to kill creativity, a nation being trained to kill its future.”
In her speech, Must Vice-Chancellor Professor Address Malata expressed her institution’s commitment of leveraging innovations and education to contribute to the country’s development.
She said: “Our university places innovations and commercialisation at the heart.
“We have laid the foundation and we are trusting that everybody who is coming out of this university will be a very good graduate.”
On his part, Must Council chairperson Boyd Luwe said since the university opened its doors in 2014, enrolment has increased.
“I am happy to report that from 2014 to date, our student population has grown from 150 to over 5 200; our academic programmes have expanded from three undergraduate programmes to 27 and from two postgraduate programmes to 21, including PhDs,” he said.
Out of the 551 students that graduated in various programmes, 406 are males.
