Unima Bill finally tabled in Parliament

The University of Malawi (Unima) Bill, which seeks to repeal the old University of Malawi Act, was tabled on Monday.

Tabling the bill in Parliament, Minister of Education Lucious Kanyumba said the bill was not introducing new things to the legal instruments of Unima but re-organising it to make university administration friendly.

“Recommendations from the Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) effected into the Unima Act have made it relevant and in line with current international standards in higher education,” he said.

Commenting on appointments to Unima offices, Kanyumba said the new bill would reduce dominance on council membership by representatives of the university executive members which was not conducive to modern corporate governance.

Section 13.2 of the bill entrenches powers of chancellor with the President while Section 15 introduces changes to appointments of vice-chancellor and deputy vice- chancellor.

The bill was scheduled for debate during the February, 2013 sitting of Parliament, but Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (Ccasu) and Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) protested, arguing the new bill would politicise tertiary education.

Section 36 of the bill gives powers to the University Council to appoint deans and heads of department every four years, but Ccasu said the current arrangement of faculty members electing academic staff to fill the positions should be maintained.

The bill was previously described by Ccasu leadership led by Sunduzwayo Madise as poorly drafted, full of internal contradictions, technical flaws, expanded roles of the council, vice-chancellor and Minister of Education, Science and Technology.

Sections 17 and 18 have introduced two additional principal offices within Unima, the university finance officer and the university internal auditor.

However, members of Parliament failed to debate on the bill, and deputy government chief whip Anita Kalinde said the MPs had been “taken by surprise” even though the bill has been in the MPs’ possession since February.