Egypt grants scholarships to Malawi Islamic students
The Egyptian Embassy in Malawi has presented 12 academic scholarships Islamic Malawian students to study at Al Azhar University for four or five years depending on their studies.
Some of the courses offered at the University include: Bachelors Degree in Pharmacy, Medicine, Political Science, Accounting, Economics and Law.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Deputy Egyptian Ambassador Abdallah Hosny said the scholarships will help the students to “expose themselves academically.”
He said: “Also, there will be an exchange of tradition and experiences from countries they will travel to which will help contribute to the country’s development,.”
Hosny said the scholarships cement the good working relationship between Cairo and Lilongwe.
“The 12 scholarships fully-sponsored by the oldest and prestigious university in Egypt bring the total to 25. The first crop left for Egypt in December. We are offering the scholarships so that in turn, the awardees contribute to the growth of the country,” he said.
There are no females among the receipients.
“We ask the Ministry of Education to nominate beneficiaries of the scholarships. They shortlist and then we make the final selection. We choose according to the grades of the applicants.
“As for the absence of females, that is the issue with the Ministry of Education. But I have taken it up with them and on our part, we are looking at having half males and half females in future. Of course, the first batch had one girl,” he explained.
Director of higher education in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Samson MacJessie Mbewe, said Egypt continues to be Malawi’s strategic partner in the area of education, saying education is a key to the development of Malawi.
“The Egyptian government has been offering both short and long-term scholarships for capacity building of Malawians. For any country to develop, we need to invest in people in different ways including education,” he said.
“This will help in developing Malawi and cementing the relationship between our two countries,” Mbewe said.
The fully funded scholarships have all been granted to male students and they are expected to leave on January 12, 2018.
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