K239m laboratories inaugurated at Malawi University of Science and Technology
The Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) will now be delivering laboratory sessions to students, thanks to the commissioning of K239 million state-of-the-art laboratories at the colleges.
The three laboratories together with six staff houses were officially handed over to the college on Tuesday.
Last year, according to MUST Council chairperson, Dr Andrew Daudi, University’s pioneer students were having their laboratory sessions from the Polytechnic, Chancellor College and College of Medicine, constituent colleges of the University of Malawi (Unima).
“This was an inconvenience to both the Unima colleges and MUST. For the Unima colleges, they had to alter their programmes to accommodate our students while for MUST, this was a drain on its resources as it had to pay for use of the labs, transport the students to and from and in the case of Chancellor College, find accommodation and provide meals for students.
“On part of our students, they were being forced to abandon other courses to do lab sessions, say for a week, to maximize the opportunity and this is not ideal as concentration levels get affected with information or knowledge overload. Now with our own laboratories, we will be able to have lab sessions when we need to and not when laboratories at Unima colleges are free,” explained Daudi, who also led Council’s first meeting earlier in the day.
He however said more labs and engineering workshops will be needed for the betterment of the students.
The initial budget for the six staff houses, whose construction works commenced in December 2013 and projected to be ready by April 30 2014, was K144,550,529.77 but shot up to K150 million due to changes in design.
The laboratories’ initial budget was K140,739,247.00 but doubled to K239,090,939.86.
“We need more labs and engineering workshops. This means that our students will still be on the road to access such facilities, especially engineering workshop, hence the need to work towards having our own,” said Daudi.
He also said they will construct more houses so that critical staff members should be accommodated at the campus.
The college has over 100 staff members and most of them are reside in Blantyre.
He also disclosed that student enrollment is expected to increase following the introduction of two new programmes to the initial three Engineering Programmes in Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy and Material Engineering. These new science programmes are in Meteorology and Climate Science, and Earth Science.
“As such, we will be looking at Public Private Partnership arrangements to increase our capacity for student accommodation,” said Daudi.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
As Malawians we need to have a policy which will guard national development and this should include stopping Leaders from making such poor decision when it comes to allocation of national projects.For example MUST, CANCER HOSPITAL, AND NATIONAL STADIUM were all twisted to BT which was bad.Very bad to see even finance minister supported the move yet he is coming from kumpoto, kodi amaganiza kuti anthu a kwawo azikayenda bwanji? very bad.
Ask Kamuzu what he did in his home village! Bingu just did the same! What is your problem?
ubwino wake university ili ku malawi akuphunziranso ndi a malawi.
Ife aku Lilongwe we will never forgive Bingu and DPP
Chinese intoxicated projects a place without a single tree shelter eeeeeeeeeeh ma design a Tumbuka bwerani muzaloweze kumeneko without any tangible thing zitzilu za anthu turn this country into a manufacturing state osati za u book worm apa sizingatithandize check developed countries between artist and white collar jobs olemera ndi ndani e.g Obama ndi Jay z?you are subsiding university education which in true sense its free what a waste of resources you are getting hefty sum of money just because you were selected to unima stupid colleges but you are saying no to work because you are getting less than… Read more »
Mulira kangati bcoz a state of art Stadium is next. NOTE: Kamuzu, educated Doctor constructed a village and Acadamy. Muluzi, uneducated businessman constructed a village and road for his trucks. Bingu, educated Professor constructe a university and road (more noise)? When you are in power the best thing is MOVE the Capital city to your home village such that all developments can follow. This sounds brilliant than crying over someones work.
MK239m is roughly USD534K and cannot provide state-of-the-art laboratories! This is a lie. That amount of money cannot even buy a single DNA sequencer. This is not an acceptable level of investment in education if we are serious with development. We should really be talking in billions worth investment if we want to see any improvement in quality – infact, billions in dollar terms!
Good! Next is phase two that will include these mentioned requirements. We also need a small mall to include: supermarkets, clinics, banks, police station, post office, coffee shops, restaurants etc and we will ask the Chinese Government to extend her hand once. There is also a need for the state of the art primary school and secondary school to befit the environment and not forgetting sports grounds for rugby, cricket, basketball and soccer! Ndata ; what a place to be after all these are in place! Although this was Bingus dreams but they are for the benefit of children of… Read more »
This University was supposed to have been built in Lilongwe. I do remember that a secretariat was even set up, its offices were along Paul Kagame road, close to Chipiku. I was surprised to learn that the University had been transferred to someone’s home village and to compensate for this, Bunda, NRC and other non related institutions were combined to form what is currently LUANAR. Unfortunately, Malawi as it is, nobody took the person responsible to task. That is why Malawi will never develop because we give our leaders blank cheques!
A good university in a bad neighborhood. People who know nothing about the importance of education. Mtundu uwu wochititsa manyanzi. Or motivation ataaa. Mungolota kunyengana basi university mukuyiona. Tikadza atumbuka pamenepo mudzidzatinyoza bwino. mxii. TELL YOUR BOYS AND GIRLS TO USE THIS GOOD UNIVERSITY!!!!!!