First cohort of students arrives on campus

In its bid to offer education to as many people in the country as possible, the University of Malawi has in the year 2022 arranged to admit first year students in two cohorts. The first cohort arrived on campus in April 2022, and will be the only year on campus until August 2022. The second cohort of first year students will arrive in August together with the continuing students.

So far, the first-year students have settled on campus. This arrangement has brought a number of advantages to the students, starting with the fact that many of them are housed in University accommodation. Additionally, the students have easier access to library resources, including computers and reading material, which would otherwise be shared with other students. After just a few weeks at UNIMA, most of the first-year students have now begun to utilize facilities such as the sports complex, the gymnasium, the ICT laboratories and the clinic.

Two students in the Bachelor of Education (Social Studies) programme, Clara Ngwira and Vera Sanga, expressed joy at joining the university. “We are both staying in University accommodation, and we have had the chance to familiarize ourselves with the campus,” they said. Although they can feel the absence of the continuing students, they know that they will meet their colleagues in their second year.

The UNIMA administration and the student leadership has helped them acclimatize to university life. “The Students Representative Council has provided some degree of guidance, and there are some clubs that are active on campus, even though they are predominantly religious in nature,” one of the students observed. During their first week, the students went through orientation, during which they were introduced to the student online portal and the various programmes on campus. Banking institutions in Zomba also took advantage of the orientation period to introduce their services to the students. Some of the students who are new to Zomba have also taken the opportunity to get to know the iconic university city where they will be spending a few of their years.