MALAWI: Time is Ripe to move Catholic University to Greater Heights: Vice Chancellor urges Growth.

Luke Bisani

Vice-Chancellor of the Catholic University of Malawi Fr. Dr. George Buleya has disclosed that the steady growth that the University has maintained for the past years calls for the move the University to greater heights.

Speaking during the 21st congregation of the University held on 24th September 2022 at Montfort Campus in Chiradzulu district, Rev. Fr. Dr. Buleya said the University has been adding numbers of students graduating at the University from 95 in 2010 to 1,230 students in 2022.

The Vice-Chancellor also disclosed that the University has been adding intake numbers from the year 2006 with 127 students to now up to over 6,000 students who are studying various programmes offered at the University.

Rev. Fr. Buleya added that the University has improved the quality of the programmes on offer through improving Internet access and capacity from 10MBPS to a whopping 46 MBPS and substantially increased library resources both physical and online and improved the online system.

The Vice-Chancellor then disclosed that the steady growth that the University has maintained over the past years calls for the move of the University to a greater height.

“We now believe that time is ripe to move our university to greater heights by introducing Masters programmes,” said Rev. Fr. Buleya.

“We also believe that time is ripe for us to expand the geographical presence of our university to other parts of the country and diversify our academic portfolio to introduce in our new colleges’ flagship programmes that do not merely reproduce what is offered elsewhere,” he added.

He then disclosed that discussions are at a final stage to turn St John’s Institute for Health in Mzuzu (Northern Region of Malawi) into a constituent College of Health Sciences and to turn St John’s Hospital into a university Teaching Hospital and construction St Thomas Moore constituent college in Lilongwe (Central Region of Malawi).

For the past years, the Catholic University of Malawi has maintained standards of quality and holistic education by being the only private University on the land offering an accredited Law Programme (Honours) by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE). The University is also having unique programmes offered only at the University which include a Diploma in Adult Education and Development and a Bachelor of Education (Life Skills and Special Needs).