Back
Following a complaint lodged by Students from Blantyre International University (BIU) and Share World concerning the un-accreditation of the law programs by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE), the Honorable Ombudsman Martha Chizuma has directed two Universities to stop offering the law program until all legal requirements are met.
Following a complaint lodged by Students from Blantyre International University (BIU) and Share World concerning the un-accreditation of the law programs by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE), the Honorable Ombudsman Martha Chizuma has directed two Universities to stop offering the law program until all legal requirements are met.
In a determination dated 25th January 2019, the Ombudsman wrote that the law programs which were offered by BlU and Share World University were never accredited in the first place. The Ombudsman further expounded that this was not because the law prohibits the universities from offering Law programs but rather because the body which regulates the Law curriculum and syllabus has not accredited them.
"The Malawi Council for Legal Education which is legally mandated to provide technical guidance through regulation of curriculum and syllabus before accreditation of the law program has to date only done this for the Law program at University of Malawi, Chancellor College. This means that any Law program which is being offered by any other university in the country is being offered illegally and will result to naught" read the determination in part. She therefore asked all privately owned universities to top offering the program until if and when the law changes because they are simply wasting students' money.
Chizuma however pointed out that the practice of letting foreign law students practice Law in the country was unfair. "The fact that the law can allow foreign trained students with Law degrees which the council has not had a chance to monitor the curriculum and syllabus to practice and yet those from Malawi are prohibited sounds unnecessarily contemptuous for local education to me. It is therefore very comforting to note that the proposed amendments to this law are taking care of these concerns" she said.
To access the full determination, click here!
Source: Office of the Ombudsman, Malawi
