Close Unima office, pay staff well, says Nawena

Thyolo Thava member of Parliament (MP) Lifred Nawena has described the University of Malawi (Unima) Office as an expensive one which should be closed and use operational costs to beef up salaries of the university staff.

The office houses the Vice-Chancellor and offers uniform academic standards for all colleges under Unima.

Nawena was contributing to debate on the Unima Bill which was tabled in Parliament on Monday this week. The bill has introduced administrative changes to the old Unima Act which have not been welcomed by some MPs and civil society activists.

Commenting on the bill, Nawena said the bill should have addressed the remuneration of academic staff who cherish and deserve academic freedom.

The fight for academic freedom led to the closure of the university for eight months in 2011 and there have been subsequent industrial action by staff crying for better pay and sit-ins by student, claiming increases in the subsistence allowance.

“Do we still require the university office? It is a cost centre that is expensive to run. It should be closed and its savings go towards salaries for academic staff and allowances for students,” he said.

Nawena, a former Unima academic staff, pleaded for better pay for academic staff, saying persistent closures the university has experienced and strikes by students were a result of poor resources.

“Another former academic staff member of Unima, Davison Nyadani accused government of interfering in administration of university offices by removing powers of appointing deans and heads of departments from faculty staff to the university office.

“This is just to make sure that those who are perceived as trouble makers are never appointed as deans or heads of departments. This bill is emotional about who should be appointed to these positions,” Nyadani said.