Unima delinking approved by Parliament: Poly will now be Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences

Legislations during the  last session of Parliament before elections passed three Bills on the de-linking of the University of Malawi.

The Malawi Polytechnic will now be called Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences while College of Medicine and Kamuzu College of Nursing have been combined and will now be called Malawi University of Health Sciences.

Chancellor College will be University of Malawi.

Education activists have been advocating for the restructuring of Unima describing it as significant in enhancing educational growth among them high standards of academic leadership, financial independence, strong and world-class research as well as world-class academia.

The Unima council endorsed the delinking of College of Medicine, Kamuzu College of Nursing and The Polytechnic from Unima.

The move followed a nod President Peter Mutharika who is Unima chancellor, gave the council for the Unima delinking to begin.

During the sitting of Parliament, an attempt by opposition MPs to amend the Bills and take away powers of the President from being Chancellor of the University of Malawi was defeated.

The delinking of the three colleges is the second after Bunda College of Agriculture was delinked from the university in 2011 which merged with Natural Resources College to form Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar).

Parliament came to an end on Friday after a two-week Mid-Year Budget Review meeting.

The President is expected to dissolve Parliament on March 20, according to the Republican Constitution.