State House Director of Communications Bright Molande  has confirmed that  Mutharika has “endorsed creation of new universities” with immediate effect.

He said the target by government is to “create more space for more students to access university education.”

Molande said the decision by President Mutharika to approve the Unima split would change the landscape of university education in Malawi.

He said this is a move in the right direction to promote tertiary education in the country.

Malawi Polytechnic will now be called Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences while College of Medicine and Kamuzu College of Nursing have been combined and will now be called Malawi University of Health Sciences.

Chancellor College will be University of Malawi.

Education activists have been advocating for the restructuring of Unima describing it as significant in enhancing educational growth among them high standards of academic leadership, financial independence, strong and world-class research as well as world-class academia.

The delinking of the three colleges is the second after Bunda College of Agriculture was delinked from the University of Malawi in 2011 which merged with Natural Resources College to form Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar).