The recent press releases from National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) indicating the accreditation stati for most of Malawi’s Universities (public and private) has created a lot of debate. NCHE should be applauded for the work it is doing. Since most of us may not know much about it, it is also understandable why we ask many questions about its ratings.
The more I thought about the reactions and debates following the discrediting and accrediting of some universities, the more questions I had and also the more issues I recalled from the past. (I should declare that I am a direct beneficiary of four of Malawi's universities). I once belonged to a satelite council of a foreign-based private University.
I thought NCHE is very clever as it won’t tell us many things including:
- That there is a difference between recognition and accreditation. Some of these institutions may have been recognized to be present in Malawi but not accredited.
- The fact that one of its council members is a Vice Chancellor and Chancellor of two universities-not sure how objective he would be in this business of accrediting or discrediting.
- That each university has its own conception and delivery period. Some of thes are only less than five years and you cannot compare with the mulitiple-decade old ones.
- That some institutions like African Bible College had their own teething problems in the 1990’s when Ministry of Education gave it very tough standards to go by. At the time, yes ABC was a college offering one degree programme.
- That offering university level education is also a business and the owners are making money.
- That most if not university leaders are products of the University of Malawi which is a mother university. The same has produced many persons who have ventured in setting up these many private universities.
- That some of the new private universities have a few courses/programmes that are more popular than the traditional public universities.
- That there are governance battles in each of the Malawi’s universities-we are not just told what they really are!
- That the poor state of tertiary education is reflection of the poverty of the country. If the economy is bad, the universities will barely make it to the minimum standards to survive.
- There are petty jealousies as some people who were not selected into the University of Malawi want to prove to others that in fact they were also university material. A real problem captured in Malawi’s national anthem.
- That universities will always want to outshine one another in all areas that concern them.
And finally, we will not be told as one professor said in 2012 that in fact, setting up a university in Malawi has been much easier than starting a primary school. May be this is what NCHE has come to address!
