BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) is pleased to announce names of candidates who have been selected to pursue various undergraduate degree programs at the University for the 2021/22 academic year.
In all, 604 candidates have been selected. There are 491 males and 113 females. The selection of candidates was done on merit and affirmative action based on gender, and special needs as per the Government Policy of admitting students into public higher education institutions.
As much as possible, candidates were selected into their preferred choices in order of preference. However, some were redirected.
The pre-defined combination of subjects required for each programme was also taken into consideration during the selection process.
Take note that all students have been selected as self-sponsored non-residential students in line with the Government Policy. Applicable fees for the selected candidates are: K450,000 per academic year for tuition and K80,000 per academic year for accommodation.
The date for opening of the 2021/22 academic year shall be announced later. For more information, please contact the University Registrar on email registrar@must.ac.mw or admissions@must.ac.mw. Names of the successful candidates are also available on the MUST website (www.must.ac.mw), Facebook(www.facebook.com/Malawi-University-Of-Science-and-Technology) and Twitter (@mustmalawi).
MUST female graduate Isha Senga died in fatal road accident
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-President Lazarus Chakwera is disheartened over the death of Isha Senga who graduated with distinction at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 .
The 26-year-old young lady who graduated in Medical Micro Biology died on Wednesday, May 19 in a road accident in Ntcheu on her way from the graduation ceremony in Thyolo.
State House Press Secretary, Brian Banda, says Chancellor of MUST, President Chakwera says “the untimely death of this intelligent young lady is a big blow to the country as demand for such intellects is high.
“You are aware that graduates are key in creating wealth, self-reliance and general enhancement of social economic development. So, the president is really very sad considering that he saw Isha in the hall on Tuesday,” said Banda.
MUST Vice Chancellor, Professor Address Malata, says the death of Isha is a big blow.
“It is a sad moment for all of us at MUST. We just have to leave everything in the hands of God,” said Professor Malata.
Isha died when a vehicle she was traveling in overturned at Bawi, along the Balaka-Ntcheu M1 road.
According to Ntcheu Police, this happened after driver of the vehicle, Tarsizio Nkhoma, 28, failed to negotiate a bend.
Police said Nkhoma was driving a Toyota Atezza saloon, from the direction of Balaka heading towards Ntcheu with three passengers on board.
Following the impact, Senga sustained severe head injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at Ntcheu District Hospital.
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) is leaving no stone unturned in its effort to nurture scientific ideas by community innovators who have no access to college or university education.
As the university’s vision; “a world class centre of science and technology education, research and entrepreneurship” says it all, on Tuesday three community innovators, who were enrolled under Community Innovation Programme, got honoured with K500 000 each for their brilliant scientific ideas.
The three youths: Mulanje based creator of Pachikweza Broadcasting Corporation, Gabriel Kondesi; MUST biomedical engineering graduate Mike Lulu Ten and Chaminade Secondary School alumni Davie Jere received their prizes during the university’s second congregation held at the university’s campus in Thyolo District.
Under the guidance of expert mentors, Kondesi is working on how to improve his electronics related innovations that include making of electronic gadgets and his radio station; Ten is working on what he calls human powered nebulizer; and Jere is working on a switch that can respond to disasters and cut off power in a building or area to prevent fires caused by electricity in times of earthquakes, storms and other related disasters. He calls his innovation D.I AutoQuake Switch.
Presenting the awards, Director of Institute of Industrial Research and Innovation (MIIRI) Dr. David Mkwambisi said the institution came up with the programme so as to nurture ideas of innovators who lack support, irrespective of their education background.
“Mr. Chancellor, the university now presents prizes worth K500 000 each to three community innovators who are currently under the Community Innovation Programme where their ideas are being nurtured by expert mentors.
“Under this programme we want to diversify and cast our net wider by reaching out to those Malawians who have very good and innovative ideas but they lack support. These are youths, who irrespective of their education levels, have brilliant ideas that lack support to realise their full potential,” said Mkwambisi.
Community innovators include those in schools either primary or secondary, in industry, and communities who have no direct attachment to any research centre or university.
Kondesi, the creator of Pachikweza Broadcasting Corporation, made headlines in the media in Malawi and beyond the borders when he got arrested and jailed in 2008 for operating a pirate radio in Mulanje.
He was sentenced by the Mulanje Second grade Magistrate court to 10 months Imprisonment with Hard Labour (IHL), after he had failed to pay a fine of MK50, 000.
The story stunned Malawians both online and offline, who expressed their shock and anger on blogs, chat forums and other social media forums such as facebook.
“When will we have the instinctive ability to recognize innovation and not punish it?” queried one facebook user upon hearing the news of arrest of the young innovator.
Kondesi, after spending three days in jail, was released after his family and well-wishers raised the money and paid the fine.
Among the well-wishers was Gospel Kazako, the Managing Director of Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), who is now the information minister in the Tonse Alliance government.
“As a radio-man, I am here to appreciate that this boy is a genius,” Kazako told journalists.
MUST’s rare opportunity for innovators comes at a time there is great need for speeding up innovation by repurposing the knowledge, resources, and technology Malawians already have at hand to accelerate economic development.
Nodding to the direction taken by the university, President Lazarus Chakwera also urged graduating students to be innovative and transform their communities by introducing ventures that will bring development.
He urged them to be part of the solutions to the challenges the Malawi is facing such as unemployment and abject and pervasive poverty.
Over 300 graduates were awarded certificates, diplomas, Bachelor and Masters degrees on Tuesday.
MUST has four operational schools: the Malawi Institute of Technology (MIT), Ndata School of Climate and Earth Sciences (NSCES), Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS), and Bingu School of Culture and Heritage (BISCH).
Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) campus
Dr Ngalande (left) presents a dummy cheque to Prof Malata
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-FDH Bank plc has contributed MK3 million to the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) ‘buy a gadget for a needy student’ campaign to enable underprivileged students access quality education through e-learning.
FDH Bank plc Managing Director Dr Ellias Ngalande said during the handover of the cheque on Monday in Blantyre that the bank, through its Corporate Social Responsibility flagship ‘FDH Cares’ is dedicated to creating a sustainable society by supporting various causes in education and health and other important areas.
“We are making this contribution of MK3million to Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) towards the Buy a Gadget for a MUST Needy Student campaign to enable MUST underprivileged students access quality education under the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) platforms. As a bank, we are proud to support the growth of these students because they are our future leaders,” said Dr. Ngalande.
He said the partnership between FDH Bank plc and MUST is not a new one as the bank already supports 10 underprivileged students enrolled in various courses at MUST on 5 year scholarships valued at MK62.5 million.
“We look forward to seeing this partnership grow and are committed to supporting MUST to grow the next generation of leaders and scientists in Malawi,” said Ngalande.
The Vice Chancellor of MUST, Professor Address Malata hailed FDH Bank plc for the donation saying it will go a long way to support the University.
“We noted that most of our students did not have gadgets to access what is called Emergency Teaching and Learning but also E- Learning overall. We realized that even if we embarked on teaching students through online platforms, we could not make any progress because majority of the students could not afford to buy a gadget in order to access education through online platforms.”
“We therefore don’t take it for granted that FDH Bank plc who are our partners responded positively to our call for resource mobilization towards the campaign. The need for the gadgets is grave since the Covid-19 pandemic because without the gadgets, no progress would have been made in the provision and access of quality education for all. With the Covid-19 pandemic still in our midst, most students in Malawi especially in the Universities need gadgets to access quality education because they cannot attend face to face classes because of the big numbers,” explained Malata.
Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must)
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The former President Mutharika family has written office of the Attorney General (AG), claiming a piece of land on which the State-owned Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) was built.
According to Malawi News Investigation, the family wants the AG’s office to address the issue of the land in question.
Attorney General Chikosa Silungwe confirmed that the matter came to his office this week.
“I can confirm that the matter to do with land where Must was built came to my office this week and we have contacted Secretary for Lands to furnish my office with more information concerning the matter,”Silungwe said.
Must spokesperson James Mphande said he was not aware of the developments.
Meabnwhile, Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe has described the Mutharika family’s claim over ownership of Must land as fraudulent.
“We know for sure that Professor Bingu Wa Mutharika (the late) had bulldozed the shifting of the University from Lilongwe where it was supposed to be constructed to Ndata. However, he publicly informed Malawians that he had donated the piece of land where lies Must. Despite this public record, the remaining family members have been reluctant and uncooperative to have that piece of land transferred to government. I, therefore find such claims to be not only great mockery to the nation, but also full of ingenuity,” Kondowe said.
He said at law, all land is vested in the republic, and the republic means the people of Malawi and as such, government can claim any piece of land that it wants to put to use for developmental projects, subject to compensation.
Kondowe has therefore urged the Tonse-led government to decisively resolve the matter.
Human rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) Chairperson Gift Trapence said it is unfortunate that late Bingu did not act on this issue during his term.
He said it is unfortunate that relations of the deceased are demanding the same piece of land which was initially publicly communicated as having been donated to government,
“There is no record that late Bingu Wa Mutharika paid for the land. By the way, MDC still exists and is 100 percent under the Secretary to the Treasury therefore we can safely say that the debenture holder of this land is Malawi Government. The whole land belongs to Malawi Government in fact they are supposed to be paying land rentals. This is why we have always been saying that people should be following procedures to prevent abuse of office,” Trapence said.
He added that what HRDC knows is that the land belongs to Ndata Farms Limited, a company that was owned by Malawians who got a loan from MDC which they failed to service and up to now the debenture holder remains MDC.
Late Bingu had made public proclamations that he had donated the piece of land where Must was constructed to government for the benefit of Malawians.
According to our findings, 10 years later, the land is still in the hands of Bineth Trust, whose sore signatories are Professor Peter Mutharika and late Bingu’s daughter, Duwa Mutharika.
Member of Parliament for Mzimba North, Yeremia Chihana, who at one point valued late Bingu’s wealth, said it is not surprising that the matter has resurfaced.
“It’s wrong for the family to claim the land from Must because there are administrators who are in charge of the land, the family should write to the administrators that they would like to take charge of the estate, they cannot write to anybody because they don’t have powers to claim,” Chihana said.
Must sits on a piece of land between Plot Number 61313,50/89 and Plot Number 61313,51/89 Thyolo on the privately-owned Ndata Farm, which late Bingu donated to government to realise his dream of having the institution in Thyolo District.
The immediate past administration, also under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had been saying the legitimate owner of Must is the government.
The University is fully funded by government through Parliament, which represents the people of Malawi and all students at Must are selected through the National Council for Higher Education (Nche) which regulates selection to all public universities.
The previous government is on record to have said that Must has never had any interaction with Bineth Trust or any of the children of the late Bingu who run the Trust
Ndata Farm, whose title deed is 79123, sits on 980 hectares of farm land in Traditional Authority Chimaliro’s area in Thyolo District.
The farm was first registered on January 27, 1998 at the Registrar General’s office as Company Number 4945 of P.O. Box 80054, Blantyre 8 with physical administrative address being Trade Fair Stand Number 34.
In 1998, the farm was registered with initial capital of K250, 000 under four directors, namely; Fredson Lawrence Mambiya, Fenneck Nelson Gunda, P Lodewick Ferreira and John Willy Ntodwa.
Ndata Farm 1998 Limited at inception obtained a loan of K6 million from Malawi MDC as as working capital.
The university campus at Ndata was constructed with a loan from the Chinese Government, together with the National stadium in Lilongwe.
The Chinese Government has supported five major projects in the country and two of them—the Karonga-Chitipa Road and the New Parliament building— being grants at US$40 million (about MK13.6 billion) and US$10 million (about MK3.4billion).
The other three projects are International Conference Centre, Hotel and Presidential Villas funded through a concessional loan.
Malawi breaking news and World News. News about Malawi, Malawi Business, Malawi Tourism, Malawi Politics, Malawi News, World and Africa Top News.
