Mzuzu University Homepage; In July 1994, after the government had studied the problems inherent in the delivery of tertiary education in the country, the former President of The Republic of Malawi, His Excellency Dr. Bakili Muluzi, decided that a new University should be established and that it should be located in the Northern Region.
Thereafter, the President appointed the Commission for the Establishment of the University in the North (COMESUN) and directed the commissioners to gather the opinions of a cross-section of the Malawian population in the three regions on the feasibility, practicality and viability of establishing such an institution.The commission heard views from politicians, traditional and religious leaders, academicians, professional experts, government officials and the ordinary people in the rural areas.
The commissioners recommended that in order for the university to open quickly, the existing Mzuzu Teachers’ Training College (MTTC) should be rehabilitated and upgraded to house the University.
The Commissioners presented the COMESUN Report and its recommendations to former President Muluzi at the beginning of September 1995. Having accepted the report in its entirety, the President appointed a Working Committee on Mzuzu University (WOCOMU) on 18th September, 1995 and instructed it to implement the recommendations contained in the COMESUN report. Specifically, WOCOMU was instructed to carry out the following principal tasks:-
To initiate and oversee the rehabilitation and upgrading of the infrastructure at the Mzuzu Teachers’ Training College.
To ensure that all the necessary physical structures and facilities are adequate for the new University to open as soon as possible; and
To initiate and supervise the planning and designing of the structures and facilities at Choma, the future campus for Mzuzu University.
In order to facilitate the opening of the new University quickly, the working committee adopted a two-prolonged Project strategy, the Fast Track and the Normal Pace. The Fast Track was the upgrading and rehabilitation of the Teachers Training College while the Normal Pace would involve the development of the physical structures and infrastructure on a completely new site near the proposed campus. Hence, Mzuzu University was established by an Act of Parliament in 1997 as Malawi’s second national (public) university in Malawi. The first students were admitted in January 1999.
