NEWS:

8 Feb, 2016


The 212 girls hostel being constructed with funding from the Norwegian government
How time flies!
It is not long since talk of de-linking Bunda College from the University of Malawi (Unima) began. Former President late Professor Bingu wa Mutharika led the calls, and rightly so. Bingu used to urge the nation to always dream in colour.

Such talk soon culminated into what we now proudly call Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR)

Instituted three years ago, LUANAR has already established itself as a force to reckon with in as far as achieving academic excellence is concerned. Not only has it already started courting envy among its equals across the region, but the world over seems to have started noticing the strides this ‘baby’ institution has made in the decimal time it has existed. Such excellence has also reflected on other sectors such as in teaching and learning, research, consultancy and outreach, just to mention a few.

As a University in its own right LUANAR’s student population has increased tremendously ever since it seceded from the University of Malawi. As of 2015, L UANAR’s total student population at LUANAR was about 5500. The number of students at the University’s main campus , Bunda Campus, moved from 700 in 2008 to about 3000 in 2015.

Previously LUANAR had been admitting candidates based on availability of bed space. This approach, however, restricted the University’s intention to increase its enrolment as a contribution to Malawi Government’s policy of widening access to higher education. Currently, the University admits students based on classroom space hence the increasing number of students.

However, just as it is with rose flowers having their own thorns, the increased enrolment at LUANAR has brought with it some challenges. Learning and teaching materials are no longer adequate. So too is on-campus accommodation, library space has been getting smaller and smaller. The ICT infrastructure, a key beacon in growing modern education, has also been left with much more to be desired. Consequently, these challenges have affected the delivery of programmes and quality of graduates.

Now that LUANAR is its own ‘being’, today, the University stands elegantly as a symbol of independence and self-reliance; something nature demands whenever one is weaned from its parent. Therefore the University has since embarked on several infrastructure projects in order to address some of these challenges currently faced.

According to LUANAR Vice Chancellor, who is also RUFORUM Board Vice Chairperson, Professor George Kanyama Phiri, the University is aware that infrastructure is one of the important factors for it to be highly ranked as well as to achieve its vision of becoming a world class University.


Hostels
The challenge of accommodation has been made worse by the fact that its Bunda Campus is situated some 35 km and NRC campus 18 km from the City Centre of Lilongwe, making private accommodation the only way but also expensive option for the eager to learn but ‘homeless’ learners. The University has, however been working on making sure that the challenge of accommodation become a thing of the past.

The University is working on increasing the increasing the number of female students which been very low in the past. This has further increased the pressure on accommodation for female students. Out of about 1,000 female students only 306 are accommodated on-campus university owned housing while the rest find their own accommodation in and around the university. In order to tackle this challenge, the University is constructing a 212 girls’ hostel with funding from the Norwegian government.

Speaking recently during the ground breaking ceremony of one of the girls’ hostel, the Royal Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi, Kikkan Haugen said the hostel, which has been designed in an African community concept, will provide a good standard accommodation to the female students.

In addition, the building has a separate kitchen unit, which is proposed to have 12 cooking points, with 96 capacity dining area. Furthermore, the facility will have its own waste disposal unit.

LUANAR is also constructing several hostels for both male and female students to ensure that many students are being accommodated on campus.

As the postgraduate students’ population increases each academic year, LUANAR has constructed a postgraduate hostel to carter for these students. According to LUANAR Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Emmanuel Kaunda the hostel will address the problem of accommodation among these students saying previously available space could only accommodate 800 postgraduate students.

“The hostel partly funded by The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), will also support the growth of the Regional PhD programmes in Agriculture and Resource Economics and Aquaculture and Fisheries Science,” said Professor Kaunda.

He further said currently 28 postgraduate students are able to access accommodation in this high standard self - contained hostel saying the hostel is able to accommodate married and mature students due to its spacious bed space as well self-catering services.

Teaching and learning Facilities
The increase in students’ population has a number of implications in terms of infrastructure capacity. Student enrolment has increased without corresponding improvement in teaching and learning resources such classrooms and library space. In the case of classrooms, the largest was designed to cater for a maximum of 100 students. However, current largest classrooms need to accommodate about 1,000 students especially in year one and two where basic courses are offered. This has forced LUANAR to construct additional teaching facilities in order to address this problem.

The Malawi government has currently invested MK4.6 billion (about $6,499,470.) in the construction of teaching and administration block at LUANAR ad this is under construction.

During LUANAR’s official launch last year (2015), the Malawi President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, who is also a champion for higher education in Africa as designated by Ruforum, pledged that his administration would see to it that the projects would be completed this year.

“I am well informed that the current library can only accommodate 500 students. Let me announce that in phase II of infrastructure development government will invest in a state of the art library to ameliorate the problem,” said President Mutharika.

The teaching and learning complex will include two 400-seater lecture theatres, six 100-seater lecture rooms and four science laboratories.

In addition LUANAR is constructing a tissue culture laboratory for biotechnology and horticulture students with funding from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) through the Rural Livelihoods Economic Enhancement Programme (RLEEP) and LUANAR.

According to Head of Department of Horticulture Dr Abel Sefasi, the new laboratory will address the problems of space which is currently faced.

“The one currently being used does not have enough space. Equipment is piled on top of each other. There is a lot of contamination of plant cultures because working rooms are close to plant culture room,” said Dr Sefasi.

He said this makes it difficult to conduct research for undergraduate students, postgraduates, staff and commercial production as part of income generating activity for the department.

Currently the University is about to complete a tendering process for the construction of another teaching facility to be supported by the Norwegian government.

While these infrastructural development are taking place at Bunda campus, The Natural Resource College, Bunda’s sister campus is not dormant either; rather there are some constructions underway.

In September last year, the college officially launched a new classroom block which was constructed with funding from the Flanders government.

The Project Coordinator, Peter Kabambe said the classroom block which costs about MK136million (about $192, 158) has three classrooms that can accommodate up to 90 students each.

He said the classroom block is a welcome addition to the College’s teaching facilities since the number of students has increased at every intake over the years, leading to an acute shortage of teaching space.

“This new classroom block has modern state-of-the-art facilities and took after the design of the rest of classrooms at the campus and hence fits very well with the rest of the buildings. It has eased the pressure on classrooms on the campus,” he said.


Business centre
Being far from the city of Lilongwe, LUANAR strives to be self-contained and reduce time for transactions between staff and student. Apart from Bunda farm which is now a commercial entity, the University is currently constructing a shopping mall which will have a filing station as well.

According to LUANAR Vice Chancellor, the institution has put in place a lot of investment plans for these structures.

“We are investing over MK300million (about $423,878) in the construction of a shopping centre and a filling station which will help to generate some income,” said Professor Kanyama Phiri.

Flanders government has also constructed a, a modern farm shop at NRC campus so that the College can serve its customers better.

Peter Kabambe, NRC Project Coordinator, said the College also procured a milk processing machine from Milk-Pro in South Africa and also a hay cutter and soya bean mixer locally from CAMCO.

“These facilities will assist the college in formulating its own branded animal feed for the farm and the surrounding communities and the milk processing unit will help add value to the milk the farm produces and also sell branded milk and milk products” said Kabambe.

All these are to ensure easy access of services to staff and students while sustaining the university’s self-reliance.

Rehabilitation of water supply and sewer system
Existing water supply facilities at Bunda campus were designed to cater for a small population but with the increased population, the university is faced with water supply related challenges. It has also been observed that due to increased demand for water supply in the Lilongwe City, provision of water to the university is not fully met. In addition the increased population has put pressure on the existing sewage facilities which were designed for a small population. The improvised students accommodation offered by members of staff has also affected the performance of the system. It is for these problems that LUANAR through the infrastructure project embarked into this project.

According to LUANAR Programmes Coordinator Dr David Mkwambisi, the project will reduce health related challenges and improve waste and sanitation related challenges.

“The project will allow LUANAR to recycle waste water and the community population will benefit through cleaner environment,” said Dr Mkwambisi.

Conclusion
The pace at which LUANAR is moving in as far as infrastructural development is concerned will completely change the institution’s face in all its campuses. Few years to come it will have most of the necessary facilities that will contribute towards the University’s vision of becoming a world class university

What a moment that would be for Malawi!


Written By: Patricia Nkhoma Ngwale