Universities planned

But perhaps these students' dreams might just come true following the Malawi National Assembly's approval of an $80 million loan from China to construct a new science university in Malawi. It will form part of Malawi's ambitious initiative to open five new institutions of higher learning in the next decade.

Ambassador of the People's Republic of China Lin Songtian said in an interview recently that the Chinese Import and Export Bank had approved the funding of the college to be located in the southern region district of Thyolo and named the Malawi University of Science and Technology.

Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika while announcing news of the new university earlier in the year described the tertiary education crisis in the country as "a deep structural problem" and insisted that the Chinese-funded institution would ease the need for people to enter college.

"Our country does not have enough universities and institutions of higher learning to develop these skills [needed for the country's development]. Every year many of our children fail to continue their education because there are no places at the universities to take them. We need to change this and do so resolutely," Mutharika said in a statement.

Finance Minister Ken Kandodo said in an interview that the new science university would initially enroll 2,000 students.

"The Chinese-funded institution would offer courses in health, medical sciences, applied engineering and technology, earth and climate sciences and cancer research," said Kandodo.

Plans are also underway to build five other colleges, which will focus on disciplines such as cotton research and water management, marine biology and aquaculture.

Mutharika said the opening of five new institutions would result in the abolition of the controversial quota system in which entry into university is determined by place of origin rather than merit.

Renewed hope

Memory Kamesa welcomes the new university and hopes it will increase her chances to realize her dream.

"I am hoping that with the establishment of this university which I am told offers medical science I will be able to be selected to study medicine. I just hope the selection system will not be discriminatory. My points were good and given a fair playing field I should have been selected to go to college," she said.

Thomas Mkandawire has only one wish and that is, the selection to science university will be exclusively on merit. "I know a lot of people who have been left out just because of the quota system and building lots of universities is our only hope," he said.

John Maseko an education expert from the Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre said that the coming of the university is timely, as issues of failure by students to attain their goals was about to explode.

"Issues of quota system which was introduced to address the matter of disparities became very political and that led to the president firing some officials from his governing party. So as an expert I am really happy with the fact that the construction of more colleges will ensure that this system, which has fuelled tribalism, will be abolished. This will also help in the sense that there will be many places to accommodate the growing demand for higher education," he said.

Don Chikakuda, education officer from the Ministry of Education, said that the new university would curb the high demand for places in tertiary education.

"We believe that such an establishment will help in reducing existing, regional, district and socio-economic disparities regarding access to tertiary education," he said.

Education in Malawi has undergone much change since 1994. Statistics show that some changes have negatively affected the quality of learning while others have brought significant improvements.

The tertiary education according to Chikakuda has been hit hard by government's policy of directing the lion's share of funding to the primary sector. Universities have had to generate a larger proportion of their own income, an exercise that has proved much harder for some colleges than others.

This was borne out in the last school session when out of 5,000 students who deserved university education only 1,000 got the chance.

Ambassador Lin Songtian said the construction of the university is just one of the many projects of the win-win cooperation. The Chinese have already built Malawi's $50 million ultra-modern parliament officially opened in May 2010, as well as funding and building a highway, an international conference center and hotel complex, and a national stadium.

"Within the next two to three years, the projects of Karonga-Chitipa road in the north, the International Conference Center and five star hotel and the national stadium will be completed. This will play vital roles in supporting Malawi to achieve self sustainable national development," he said. 

China's funding of major development in Malawi, as well as Africa as a whole, has been viewed by many as a diplomatic goodwill gesture to build good relations, averting earlier criticisms that it is only after Africa's rich natural resources.

(Reporting from Malawi)