MALAWI: University for president's home village

Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika is to construct a private university in his home village. The institution will be called Kamoto University, a name derived from the village in the Thyolo District. "Land for the infrastructure has already been acquired," the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training said in a brief response to University World News.

The president of the Ristumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, Professor Monte Cassim, has been requested to help set up the university. Late last month, Mutharika presented a paper on Malawi at Asia Pacific University following a visit to Japan for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

The Malawian president holds a PhD in development studies from the US Pacific Western University in Los Angeles, a master's degree in economics and a bachelor of commerce from the University of Delhi in India. Before becoming president, Mutharika worked for a number of regional and international organisations: he is a former secretary-general of the regional trading bloc, the common market for Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as a former director for trade and development for the United Nations responsible for 53 African countries.

In 1981, Malawi's first post-independence president Hastings Kamuzu Banda founded a private education school named Kamuzu Academy. It was nicknamed 'Eton in the bush' as it was modelled along the lines of the British school. Its headmaster Francis Cooke, a British national from Manchester, was awarded an MBE in Malawi for establishing high standards at the school. Clemence Manyukwe.