Unicaf University Opens Its Doors to the Community

Unicaf University organises the Open Lecture series, hosting distinguished personalities, who present their thoughts on key issues of the day, relating to education, business, development and progress, as part of its corporate social responsibility programme. On June 21^st was the turn of the Honourable Louis J. Chimango, former Speaker of the National Assembly, to take to the podium. Honourable Chimango’s talk was entitled ‘Achieving your goals with quality education”. Over 100 guests from the general public attended the lecture, held in the Unicaf University campus in Lilongwe. To the general consensus of all present, the lecture was interesting and stimulating, and provided the audience with ‘food for thought’.

Honourable Chimango expressed the conviction that quality education can be the main tool for achieving one’s goals in career and in life. Asking the audience to follow him in a path of self-assessment, the Former Speaker of the National Assembly spoke about the socioeconomic challenges Malawi is currently facing, including corruption, and referred to the need to increase the sense of integrity among Malawians, through quality education. “We must have integrity. We must promote the spirit of integrity in our schools and universities….. it requires learning to know how to get away from the individualistic thinking pattern and on to a more community-based mindset”, he added.

After the lecture, Professor Kuthemba Mwale, Rector of Unicaf University said that one of the main aims of Unicaf University is to instill a sense of morality in its students. “An educated person is someone who has changed… And change means you have acquired knowledge you did not have, you have acquired skills and attitudes and values you didn’t have and some of these values are ethical values, moral values, which will make you think about you and others, and not just about yourself..”

Answering questions of the audience, Mr Chimango explained that he does not wish to propose specific measures to counteract corruption and other pressing issues in Malawi’s current socioeconomic culture, but he is trying to bring these challenges to the foreground; he continued by asking members of the audience to search for the answers and solutions within themselves. “What I would like to encourage Malawians is to have more consultative talks, so that we find out how we can solve the challenges this country is facing”, he concluded.

The guests were taken on a guided tour of the state of the art Unicaf University campus facilities, and the discussion about the crucial issues raised by the distinguished speaker in the lecture amphitheatre was resumed during the cocktail reception that followed.

The next Unicaf University Open Lecture will be in July. The name of the speaker and the title of the lecture will be announced in the press. Interested members of the public are encouraged to make reservations for these popular open lectures well in advance, in order to avoid disappointment, as seating is limited.