Open the Malawi colleges, Mr. Chancellor: Muckraking Extra

Spare a thought for students in the University of Malawi who were supposed to graduate in 2014 but they are still in college courtesy of the 2011 ‘academic freedom’ impasse. Such students are spending a fifth year in college on their four-year degree programme.

Chanco campus
Chanco campus

With this latest university impasse such students will add another year to their five years of being on campus. What justice is that?

Look, during the good old days, university education was virtually free. But going to college these days literally cost an arm and a leg. Students are paying for food and accommodation.

At Chancellor College, for example, Malawi Housing Corporation flats cost K18,000 per student/per month. In the nearby township of Chikanda, an average room costs around K10,000. The students pay for these rooms regardless of whether the college is open or not.

Add to that the fact that some of the students are adults who have gone back to school to upgrade their qualifications. Some of them are primary school teachers, policemen et cetera. This means they took leave of absence from their places of work.

Surely these frequent and prolonged closures are not doing them any justice. Some may even lose their jobs or degrees if you get my drift.

We are lucky we have a forty-year veteran university don as our president. Surely the Chancellor of the University of Malawi, Prof. Peter Arthur Mutharika, understands the folly of reading for a four-year programme in six years.

Let us solve these frequent closures and elongation of semesters once and for all. They are making the University of Malawi look ugly. No wonder we do not appear anywhere among the Top 50 universities in Africa, that is a shame for a country that has produced some of the continent’s most illustrious sons and daughters too numerous for the Muckraker to list.

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Robson Chimtengo
Robson Chimtengo
9 years ago

Amalawife we are to blame for this is our own problem. Nkhani za maufulu (human rights) sitinazilandire bwino. Chilichonse boma lingachite timatsogoza human rights, timati boma likutiphwanyira ufulu. Ndiye mmene tinangoyamba democracy in 1993 (referendum), attitude ya ana a sukulu ngakhale nku primary komwe inasithiratu, mphunzitsi salemekezedwanso. Ndiye ufuluwu sitikuwugwiritsa bwino kuti utipindulire mmalo mwake ukutionongera zinthu, zotsatira zina nzimenezi.Nchifuka chake anthufe mwina tikuti nthawi ya MCP inali bwino chifukwa boma limene lija limatsatira malamulo kwambiri. Panopa nzomvetsa chisoni kuti zinthu zambiri pa Malawi pano zaonongeka chifukwa sitikukhala adindo abwino powonetsetsa kuti ufulu umene aliyense ali nawo augwiritse bwino kuti… Read more »

Kingpin
Kingpin
9 years ago

The problem is that we r living in a country driven by selfishness n greed. Nobody seems to care.

Clement mphasa
Clement mphasa
9 years ago

This frequent closure is delaying University education as a result Malawi won’t improve its education standards

tell me
tell me
9 years ago

Thats why some of us we are studying abroa… Expensive but worth every penny

willard Thipa
willard Thipa
9 years ago

The munthalikas are the best but you don’t understand them

Du
Du
9 years ago

You have exacly researched your writing on problems faced by malawian students! Our colleges nowadays are new version of old Spartan camps.

Kika Kanawe
Kika Kanawe
9 years ago

Should we forget about Academic Freedom saga when the chancellor was the minister of education then?The closure of the universities is what our leader studied to enhance his administration.If he is failing to run the affairs of few old colleges what will happen community colleges will be added?It will be chaos.

datruth
datruth
9 years ago

Zaulere ndi choncho baba anyada ali kukaphuka, phwezi, new era expensive school lero akuti ana aanthu osauka kukakamira yotchipa aziona ifeso ma student a HIv sitilora kulowa nkalasa mpakana mzimayi wamutu ngati thako lake kabira apepese

John Telford
John Telford
9 years ago

REMEMBER this all governmnet try to cut back on education by all different methods because an ignorant uneducated or poorly educated population is much easier to fool

Amfumu Mwanabvumbe
9 years ago

Does the name “Mutharika” mean University Education is forbidden?

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