Universities should work with communities—Unima

University of Malawi (Unima) vice-chancellor John Kalenga Saka has said universities as one of the country’s productive sectors need to prioritise their engagement with the community.

Making a contribution during the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Pre-Budget Consultation meetings for the 2016/17 fiscal year in Blantyre on Thursday, Saka said productive sectors of the economy need to be prioritised in a manner that also takes into account the interest of the other social sectors.

He said: “Deliberately, if we prioritise the productivity areas, a dedicated funding would be required so that the ministers of Finance, Education and Industry will have to play a critical role in making sure that any investment leads to useful outcome.

“Kenya is a very interesting example because when you go to the rural areas where universities are, they do the basic teaching and learning but more importantly they do value addition to improve the welfare of the people in the communities which they are found and therefore at higher level.”

Saka also said universities have specific roles which might be useful in an economy.

He said two of Unima’s four constituent colleges, the College of Medicine (CoM) and Chancellor College (Chanco), are thinking of how they can support mindset change.

Saka said moral capital is a very priority matter and if the society is empowered, even at local level, the mindset becomes important because then it allows citizens to think of what they have to offer to government instead of what they stand to benefit from government.

Speaking when he presided over a Unima congregation in Zomba last Wednesday, President Peter Mutharika said the university is an instrument for improving the economic and social well-being of the people and in that case, the university and its government ultimately serve the same purpose of improving lives of people.

“The university must always assess its contribution to society. I am pleased to note that the tracer study undertaken by the University of Malawi is done and ready for implementation,” he said.

Malawi has four functional public universities, namely, Unima, Mzuzu University (Mzuni), Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) and Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must).n