06 December, 2017

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Malawi Professor John D. Kalenga Saka has asked Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International to assist the University in areas of capacity building, infrastructure development and provision of PhD scholarships.

Professor Saka made the call recently when he led the university’s senior leadership in a discussion with RTI International delegates at the University of Malawi central offices in Zomba.

“One of the challenges the university is facing currently is space to accommodate as many students as possible who qualify for tertiary education every year hence the call for infrastructure development”, he said.

According to RTI International’s leader of delegation, Sarah Mattingly, the aim of the visit was to hold discussions with various stakeholders in order to get information that would inform RTI’s design for an upcoming USAID funded project that will focus on increasing access to higher education and ultimately result in increasing employment and entrepreneurship for the youth.

“Our organization was ready to partner with University of Malawi in order to solve specific problems that hamper the youth from accessing higher education. What we probably require as a next step is to get your proposals in the specific areas of your concern in areas that will give an advantage to the youth to access higher education”, she explained.

She then asked the university to consider offering courses that are entrepreneurial in nature so that young people can create their own employment after they graduate.

Making his contribution, the University Registrar Dr. Benedicto Okomaatani Malunga further requested RTI to consider assisting the university’s students particularly those with various forms of disabilities.

Empathized Dr. Malunga, “Your country can have greater impact on things like disability. Braille  texts for example require braille experts, teachers with special education who would know how to handle people with various forms of disabilities.

“It can be of great motivation to have visit-and-learn trips to the United States of America to appreciate how experts in disability handle students with disabilities”

Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, a USA based non-profit organization, will come back to the university in February 2018 to get proposals in various areas of need.