Mutharika orders Unima fees reduction, opening of Chanco
President Peter Mutharika has directed that Chancellor College (Chanco) of the University of Malawi be reopened soon and that the recent fees hikes for various disciplines of study at the university, be reduced by K50 000 ($69) across the board.
The two were some of the concessions Mutharika, who is Chancellor of the University of Malawi, facilitated during a close-door audience with leaders of the University of Malawi Students Union (UMSU) at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe today.
He also directed that the Treasury should provide K1 billion ($1.4 million) to the University of Malawi (Unima) Council to make up for the shortfall the fees reduction will cause in the council’s running of the university’s constituent colleges.
The constituent colleges are Chanco, The Malawi Polytechnic, the College of Medicine (COM) and Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN).
The other concessions were that truly needy students should have access to education loans through the loans and grants board of the National Commission for Higher Education (NCHE); that employed mature students should also be considered for the loans.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe led a team of government officials that engaged with the students over a number of their grievances, including the closure of Chanco, over two weeks ago, following riots at its Zomba campus
Well done! Just what we were hoping for. The funding gap is filled by govt. So a win win situation for University and students.
Hahaha!!
Mr President playing politics on this matter is not gonna buy you any votes in 2019. The higher education fees in Malawi is the lowest in the whole SADC region. However I understand that most families can’t afford to pay the fees but that’s a different issue all together.
First of all we have a nation that does not have functional health facilities, patients going on a one meal a day. We have rationed electricity & water supply, the very basic necessities that are needed to drive our economy forward. We have a dysfunctional education system, primaly schools with no toilets, no books, no teachers the list is endless…..
And yet the big Kahuna eventually comes out of his cocoon and orders a fees reduction and diverts a billion kwacha from the recently approved budget and inject it into our universities without parliament approval………….does this senile old man have any brains at all??
Most parents can’t afford sending their children to Uni because salaries are very low, crop prices at the markets are a rip off, these are the issues that you Mr president should be sorting out and not intervening in this way to score some political points, making the people who are running our universities look stupid as if they raised the fees for their personal gain
I just hope that this i billion will come from the State House budget allocation or from Bingus offshore accounts other wise you have just lost my vote Sir.