His Excellency Prof . Arthur Peter Muthalika is right!

By: Dr Qeko

The statement the State President made days ago during the Chanco golden jubilee fund raising dinner at the popular Bingu International conference centre is true and a fact. On the same, the criticism against the President’s statement by some is unfortunate especially looking into the current status of the University in terms of its rating regionally and globally. In this brief write up, I am categorically supporting the noting raised by the State President that its about time that Malawian academia must focus on research and not just making unnecessary noise in the corridors of university campuses. This is not for the University of Malawi alone but also the rest of the higher institution of learning.

The whole reason as to why the president might have delivered that type of speech to push  Universities in Malawi to focus on research could be that the President might have seen that  Universities in Malawi are not appearing on the newly released Webometrics list of the best 100  Universities in African. Hearing the President’s voice one could see that His Excellency was concern with the whole saga of his universities missing on the list of the best 100 Universities in Africa. Such news might have affected him and he wished there was a way how one day Universities in Malawi could appear on the list of the best universities in Africa. The irony has been that those institutions of learning we feel are the best locally seem to be the poorest regionally.

One troubling thing has been that Malawi’s Universities led by the mother University have been the worse institutions  as compared to the University of Botswana (on position 46), Zimbabwe (on position 40), Kenyatta University (on position 38), University of Daresalam (on position 37), University of Zambia ( on position 32), University of Namibia (on position 24), Makelere (on position 13), University of Nairobi (on position 7) and the 10 South African  ten Universities which tops the list. The fact that for years Malawian Universities could not even be among the best 100 yearly remains a great irony in Malawi’s education. Why must the nations University not be part of the just 20, and not even 30, 40, 50,60, 70, 80, 90, and even best 100 Universities in Africa?

Having said this however, one thing must be observed that although the President made such a noble statement, there is a role that government must play to initiate and promote the process of research in the country. The President’s statement must translates into an action by government to begin playing a role in funding research activities and creating more incentives for research scholars so that they do more in terms of research as is the case in other countries. There must be a budget that would support research every year and a system would be put together to administer such research activities. Malawians scholars only develop themselves when they cross the boarders because other nations have put in place mechanism to help scholar stand between the nation and development. in any kind of development research basically become part of it so at to establish the realistic of such action. Unless the President statement goes beyond words, Universities in Malawi will continue ranking behind in world and regional ranking which naturally bring shame to the entire nation and which at the same time questions the kind of leadership and education a nation has.