Kondowe faults quota, unlimited space claims
Rights activist Benedico Kondowe has faulted Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe’s claims that the country has more university space than eligible candidates.
Kondowe was speaking in an interview on Monday in reaction to Gondwe’s assertions that DPP has no quota policy and that the country has more than enough university space.
Said Gondwe in an interview: “Now we have so many university places, in fact more than available candidates. So the quota policy doesn’t have a place in such an environment.”
Kondowe said Gondwe’s sentiments are unfortunate and misleading, urging government to abolish the system as promised by President Peter Mutharika during the campaign and inaugural speech.
Kondowe said the country does not have enough university space as every year over 10 000 students are eligible for university admission but only 3 000 get selected.
Said Kondowe:“DPP government has to be honest and sincere to Malawians.”
He said there is a clear message from Nche that the system will still be applied in the harmonised selection to public universities as advised by government.
National Council of Higher Education (Nche) corporate services manager Dingani Soko said the council has received in excess of 17 000 applications, but the number of students to be selected will be determined by the respective universities depending on capacity per programme through their selection committees.
Malawi has four functional public universities, namely University of Malawi, Mzuzu University, Malawi University of Science and Technology and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The fifth public university, the University of Mombera in Mzimba, had its foundation stone laid on Sunday by President Peter Mutharika.
