By Isaac Salima:
President Lazarus Chakwera has urged fresh Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas) graduates to use knowledge gained in school by venturing into entrepreneurship to create wealth.
Chakwera said this Wednesday at Mubas main campus in Blantyre, where he presided over the institution’s first congregation since being de-linked from the University of Malawi (Unima).
The President was also installed as the university’s chancellor.
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At the event, 114 students received degrees, diplomas and certificates, having completed their studies.
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“My dream is that you will marry the innovations you are going to create, using the skills you have gained here, with a spirit of entrepreneurship in order to turn your innovations into wealth creation engines that create jobs for other Malawians,” he said.
The President described the graduation as a dividing line between the past and the future of education at the institution.
“Today, we leave behind a past that focused on educating our youth to occupy a desk in an office, and we press on towards a future that focuses on educating our youth to build industries,” he said.
Mubas Vice-Chancellor Nancy Chitera said it was pleasing that the institution has been “scaling high by producing graduates who have been making a difference on the market”.
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“It is with pride that we affirm Mubas’s role in contributing to the betterment of our society. I hope that Mubas alumni will continue to contribute to social and economic transformation of the country,” Chitera said.
She added that the university now boasts a student population of about 10,300 and plans to expand the number to 30,000 by 2030.
Chairperson for Mubas Council George Kanyama Phiri said the institution has acquired land in Salima, Lilongwe and Mzuzu with an aim of widening access to tertiary education in the country.
Mubas, formerly The Polytechnic, was delinked from Unima to become and independent institution in 2019. This was the first graduation ceremony for the institution as an autonomous university.
Government resolved to delink The Polytechnic, Kamuzu College of Nursing and College of Medicine from Unima to, among other objectives, increase access to higher education and improve governance and operational efficiency in public universities.
In 2011, Bunda College of Agriculture was also delinked from Unima and became a stand-alone institution named Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources after merging with Natural Resources College.
