Students at the University of Malawi have been sent home following a decision to close the university due to student protests. The students are protesting an academic calendar that keeps them at home for five to six months between semesters, resulting in a four-year course taking up to seven years to complete.
Several talks between student leaders and university officials have taken place, but no compromise has been reached.
A student general assembly decided to suspend classes last Thursday, and the next day, students began rioting, blocking all routes leading to the campus with stones and tree branches.
The university’s Acting Registrar, Mary Wasiri, said in a statement that the institution had been closed until further notice because the protests had made the campus hazardous for both staff and students.
The controversial academic calendar was adopted in April to accommodate two first-year groups, one from last year and one from this year.
Last year’s group was forced to stay at home for about a year and a half due to the shutdown of all academic institutions due to Covid-19.
Wasiri said that the university decided to teach the two groups of first-year students at different times so that they would spend different amounts of time on campus. This was due to a lack of teaching space and staff at the institution to accommodate them all at the same time.