Coalition faults Unima education standards
The Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) has faulted the quality of education standards being provided within the University of Malawi (Unima), saying they are not competitive enough.
Csec executive director Benedicto Kondowe was reacting to a report released by Webometrics, a Spanish largest academic ranking of higher education institutions, which has ranked Unima number 99 out of 100 African universities.
Kondowe said the rankings are based on a number of criteria, for instance, the recent one was based on web information management which is a 21st century education system requirement that universities should move towards e-electronic information management.
“E-electronic information management implies that there is a departure from hard copy use of information to electronic use of information which is readily available to both lecturers and students.
“Our being ranked at number 99 out of 100 implies that our quality of information management within the Unima is too bad to meet the demands of the 21st century,” said Kondowe.
He said information technology and communication as well as internet management should be strengthened within the university system to make accessing of information by lecturers and students easy.
“In the electronic information management, it is very important to link our university with other universities worldwide, so that students might be able to access information that is not available in Malawi,” said Kondowe.
Unima has four constituent colleges, namely Chancellor College (Chanco), the Polytechnic, Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) and College of Medicine.
Unima hasn’t been ranked 99 out of 100 universities. Read the data again: Unima is number 99 out of over 1,000 African universities. The correct reading of the data therefore is: Unima is number 99 of the *top* 100 African universities. If it was number 5, somebody would claim that it was the *last* one out of 5 universities :-). Having said this, being number 99 is pathetic! Unima used to be much better than that! But mbuzi like Bakili, Bingu & JB run it aground. We should never have trusted them with running the affairs of our nation. Even the Good Book counsels against casting pearls before swine. Mxii!!