Parliament passes Malawi University of Science and Technology amendment bill

Parliament has passed the amendment bill 2023 of Malawi University of science and technology.

This Bill seeks to amend various provisions of the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) in order to address challenges that have negatively affected the management and administration of the Malawi University of Science and
Technology.

Among other things the bill proposes to delete objects of the University that were erroneously included in the Act and replace them with new objects that are aligned to the mandate of the University.

This include changing the composition of the Council of the University by deleting the office of Deputy Vice-Chancellor and removing the Chief Executive Officer of the National Council for Higher Education and the Secretary responsible for transport as ex-officio members and replacing them with the Secretary responsible for industry and the Director General of the National Commission for Science and Technology.

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) is being replaced because of the evident conflict of interest of the Commission as a regulator of higher education, while the replacement of the Secretary responsible for transport is based
on the lack of relevance of the institution to the mandate of the
University.

Meanwhile the bill received resounding support from both blocks of the house.