Department of Politics and Government

The Department of Politics and Government originates from the Department of Political and Administrative Studies. Through the Department of Political and Administrative Studies, the Department of Politics and Government has a long history dating back to the time when public administration courses were offered at the Staff Training College, now called the Staff Development Institute (SDI). In 1962 the college established the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) to train civil servants. The IPA became one of the constituent colleges of the University of Malawi when it was founded in 1965, and when Chancellor College moved to Zomba in 1973, the IPA was restructured and became an academic department called Department of Public Administration under the Faculty of Law and Public Administration and later on the department was renamed to the Department of Political and Administrative Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences. The restructuring of the University of Malawi following the passing of the legislation in Parliament in 2019 resulted in a setup whereby Faculties became Schools; the Department of Politics and Government was born out of the Department of Political and Administrative Studies under the Faculty of Social Science.

The department has staff members with skills and knowledge from the academic disciplines of public administration, political science and development studies. The department offers two undergraduate programmes and five postgraduate programmes namely Bachelor of Arts (Public Administration), Bachelor of Arts (Political Science), Master of Public Administration and Management, Master of Arts (Political Science), Master of Arts (Development Studies), PhD in Public Administration and PhD in Development Studies.