The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) says it is committed to ensuring that there is inclusive higher education in Malawi.

NCHE Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ignasio Jimu made the remarks recently in Mponela, Dowa, when opening a stakeholders meeting on inclusive education.

Dr. Jimu said NCHE’s Strategic Plan (2015 -2020) has a number of activities to promote wider access to higher education, including ensuring that higher education in Malawi is inclusive.

Some of the activities according to Dr. Jimu, include to ensure that facilities provided in higher education institutions allow access for learners of different needs; ensure adequate provision of teaching and learning resources matching with requirements of learners with special needs; ensure mainstreaming of inclusive education in the higher education curriculum; ensure training of lecturers in inclusive education and ensure development of inclusive education policy in higher education.

NCHE also is also involved in ensuring inclusive education through its facilitation of the selection of students into public higher education institutions.

“One of the functions of the Council is to harmonise the selection of students to public universities. Serious discussions and interventions have ensued to increase access and improve on the numbers of those with various impediments accessing public higher education.

“Beyond admission, NCHE is also keen to ensure that infrastructure in all higher education institutions provides for access to persons with mobility and other challenges. We recognise increasing access, and inclusive access in particular, is a right that should not be abrogated,” noted Dr. Jimu.

The meeting was aimed at renewing stakeholders’ focus in matters of inclusive education with the anticipation that it would unravel the current situation of inclusive education in higher education, make proposals on how best NCHE and all key stakeholders in higher education can represent the cause of inclusive education particularly in higher education and therefore redirect higher education towards better inclusiveness.

Apart from NCHE, stakeholders at the meeting also included those from the department of higher education in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; private and public higher education institutions and inclusive education experts.

Officials representing the country’s four public Universities (PUs) have hailed efforts by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) in the just ended 2018/19 selection sensitisation clinics conducted across the country.

For the second year running, NCHE has been conducting the clinics together with the four public Universities in the country to sensitise eligible candidates on how to complete the application form.

The four public Universities are Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR); University of Malawi (UNIMA); Mzuzu University (MZUNI) and Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).

In an interview, MZUNI Assistant registrar Wezi Shaba, said the sensitization clinics have proved to be crucial and that this year’s participation by students has been very overwhelming showing the relevance of the clinics.

“The sensitization clinics are very helpful as they provide candidates with important information as they apply to go to the public Universities, all we need to do is ensure we impart as much knowledge as possible to the candidates” he said.

Dr. Sekanawo Kasiya representing LUANAR, concurred with Shaba saying the selection clinics are crucial as they enable the students make informed decisions on what programmes to apply for in relation to the grades they scored.

During the clinics, NCHE representatives explained the application process and how students can complete the form while representatives from each of the four universities elaborated on the programmes they offer as well as their requirements.

Candidates who completed their M.S.C.E, IGCSE or ‘O’ level equivalent; Advanced Subsidiary Certificate or a National Senior Certificate; Advanced Level, International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma or ‘A’ Level equivalent in the past three years 2016, 2017 and 2018 are eligible to apply.

Candidates with an M.S.C.E must have at least six credit passes (a minimum of grade ‘6’).

Speaking during random interviews after the orientations, a quarter of potential students who attended the clinics expressed satisfaction on the guidelines as explained by NCHE and representatives from the universities, saying the process is much simpler now than before.

Despite some expressing skepticism on the available spaces in the universities as compared to the number of eligible candidates, the students also expressed joy at the fact that one has to apply to the four public universities using only one form.

The students also hoped that NCHE will from next year conduct the clinics at as many venues as possible to deal away with congestion which was evident at the 2018 venues.

NCHE has been conducting PUS clinics since last year in line with its role in harmonizing university selection.

To ease pressure and costs, NCHE has also created an online system so students can apply and submit online. The system was introduced last year and the Council hopes that many students will utilize this method.

Students now have a choice to apply either online or through hard copies.

The forms are available at District Commissioners and District Education Managers offices in all districts across Malawi.

The application forms can also be accessed on NCHE website as well as websites for all the four public universities.

The closing date for receipt of applications for the 2018/19 PUS is 31 January 2019.

Professional regulatory bodies in the country have commended steps that the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has taken to collaborate with them in the promotion of quality higher education in Malawi.

Noting that higher education has two parts, academic and professional, representatives from some professional regulatory bodies in Malawi said it is imperative that the two sides work together to promote quality.

Speaking at a consultative meeting for the National Higher Education Qualifications Framework organized by NCHE for professional regulatory bodies in Mangochi recently, acting Registrar of the Medical Council of Malawi Mr. Richard Ndovie noted that collaboration is important in provision of quality education.

“With regard to Medical Council in specific we want not to be duplicating the job NCHE does, we want to be doing things systematically. When they are inspecting or accrediting programmes we will be working with NCHE, in fact we involve NCHE already in our committee when we are vetting curriculums so our working relationship is quite ok with NCHE,” he said.

Mr. Ndovie noted that working together will also bring sanity to the sector.

“There will be sanity because there will be no place to hide for those institutions which run without being licenced or accredited because as medical council we know what we are looking for, nobody can just start offering a medical programme anywhere or a health programme and then if it’s not us then NCHE will be there and we will be sharing information to say are you aware of this institution operating without approval and vice versa and in the process we will be bringing sanity,” said Ndovie.

Director for the Council of Legal Education Bruno Kalemba noted that the coming in of NCHE has fundamentally changed the landscape in terms of accreditation in that whereas before NCHE most of the professional bodies only had to make reference to their parent ministries, now we have a centralized institution like NCHE to carry out that function.

“It is only proper that we should all be on all fours as we are moving forward in this process of accreditation so this meeting has really helped us to come up with a foundation from which we can build how relationships between NCHE and the professional regulatory bodies are going to be,” he said.

He reiterated that such a relationship between NCHE and professional regulatory bodies will in the long run standardize the process of accrediting higher education institutions and the programmes they offer.

“What is going to happen is that as Council of Legal Education we are mainly concerned with the law programmes while NCHE looks at the bigger picture of the institutions that offer those programmes.

“So our roles are more complimentary. We are not on opposing sides but we are on the same side with complimentary roles and this meeting will help us come up with processes that are going to streamline such roles so that we do not put undue pressure on the providers so that the providers know from the word go who does what in the process of accreditation.” said Kalemba.

Council of Legal Education controls, supervises and manages legal education in the country. Any qualification has to be approved and licenced by Council of Legal Education before it is recognized as such.

Apart from the Medical Council of Malawi and Council of Legal Education, other professional regulatory bodies present at the meeting were the Nurses Council of Malawi; Malawi Accountants Board; Institute of Certified Accounts in Malawi; Bankers Association of Malawi; Malawi Institute of Procurement and Supply; Board of Architects and Quantity Surveyors; Malawi Institute of Architects;

After meeting with the professional regulatory bodies, representatives from both public and private higher education institutions joined in on the discussions.

Speaking at the meeting, NCHE Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ignasio Jimu reiterated the importance of all players in the higher education sector working together to promote quality.

“We recognize that many countries have developed qualification frameworks and there is a steady progress towards regional and continental integration.  This is an important facet given that the discourse on qualifications framework is further linked to the question of ensuring appropriate skill levels for economic regeneration, growth and transformation,” Dr. Jimu said.

Dr. Jimu noted that the worthiness of our qualifications and the regulatory regime itself are in need of enhancing therefore as a country we cannot stop reflecting on the need for robust internal and external quality assurance processes hence the requirement that higher education institutions should endevour to set up quality assurance units.

NCHE is the regulator for the higher education sector in Malawi as mandated by Act of parliament No. 15 of 2011.

The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has a new set of Councilors who took over from the previous Council effective July 2018.

The new Council, which was gazetted in September 2018, is headed by Dr. Bruce Munthali, who takes over from Dr. Stanley Khaila.

Dr. Clemence Kadzera is the Vice Council Chairperson. Other members of the Council include Mrs. Temwani Simwaka; Mr. Dalton Mphepo; Reverend John Gondwe and Mr. Albert Jeremiah.

Ex Officio members of the NCHE Council include: The Secretary to the Treasury; The Comptroller of Statutory Corporations; the Secretary for education; the Secretary for Human Resource Management and Development; Vice Chancellor of Malawi University of Science and Technology; Vice Chancellor of University of Malawi and Vice Chancellor of Malawi Adventist University.

The Council together with senior management of NCHE, has already undergone the Corporate Governance Orientation Workshop for Boards of Directors and senior management of state corporations organized by the Department of Statutory Corporations together with the Malawi Institute of Management (MIM).

NCHE was established by Act of Parliament No. 15 of 2011, with the mandate to promote and coordinate education provided by higher education institutions in the country.