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Council wants ’varsity entrance exams scrapped

Malawi’s National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) wants public university entrance examinations scrapped across institutions to ensure a complete harmonised selection of students to public universities.

Currently, the University of Malawi (Unima) is the only institution that administers entrance examinations. Mzuzu University (Mzuni), the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) and the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) adopted zero-entrance examination selection.

Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST)
Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST)

Speaking in an interview yesterday, NCHE corporate services manager Dingani Soko said the council wants students to be selected under the same conditions hence the scrapping of entrance examinations.

Soko said Unima is yet to give its position on whether it will continue with entrance examinations.

According to Soko, students who have been selected to Unima by NCHE and those that have not made it to other universities will sit for the Unima entrance examinations if Unima decides to continue with the examinations.

He said: “The harmonised selection is to the advantage of students and institutions. Students will no longer have to go through the burden of making several applications and institutions will not be forced to make second selections.”

Soko added that the harmonised selection will also involve the controversial quota system of selecting students, arguing it is a government policy. This will be second application of the controversial system under President Peter Mutharika’s administration despite the President committing to abolish it

Unima registrar Benedicto Okomaatani Malunga said Unima decided to conduct a study to establish the necessity of having entrance examination or not before it could make a stand.

Mzuni vice-chancellor Robert Ridley said harmonisation will curb wastage of space in public universities adding it will enable proper planning of academic activities by the university and students since selection will be done at once.

Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) executive director Benedicto Kondowe welcomed the harmonisation process as students will be subjected to same conditions.

Kondowe condemned Unima’s resistance on the entrance examinations, saying they have no impact on quality of students selected.

Critics of the quota system have argued that it is discriminatory and retrogressive, arguing that some students with good grades are denied places in universities.

 

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2 Comments

  1. i dont really understand this country at all ….Whats wrong with old formart kaphera choka 6 -24pointsand up to 32 points only girls but with quarta system? the rest 25 to 42 awone zina ngati health science, accountancy, //programme komanso private UNI.. Ma graduates amasiku ano a 6 or 10 they cant perform madeya okha okha.. entry or no entry its just the same…Varsity these days its all about money…ndakayika ngati sipakhala chinyengo..

    Asiyeni maphunzila akhala mmene analili ..6 to 24 points with quarta system apite ku iniversity such will give us equal opputunity eventhough the old system was given more oppunities to Girls up to 32 points ku university that was good.. ontop of that it will give chances to student from Mangochi and machinga…

    Entry ndikuwona ngati sikupindula but because the OLD SYSTEM WAS UNDER MCP may thats why people they dont want it, lets not politicize zinthu zotithandiza tonse… at times when something good has been done lets appreciate……..

  2. The logical approach to this policy change requires more information regarding what is driving the suggestion to scrape off entrance examinations. For example, among other reasons, entrance examinations were introduced under UNIMA to ensure quality prevailed among the admitted students. The thrust of the arguments surrounded issues of corruption in the manner students handled MSCE. The suggested harmonisation approach is naive, unless the principal arguments that necessitated the change then are fully addressed; or we have information there’s considerable improvement and the examination practice nowadays is free from flaws. We can still talk about harmonisation to imply all public universities administer the same entrance examination administered through council for higher education. How about that?

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