Education News Central Africa

Malawi: Journalism institute in qualification scandal

Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ), which is under the University of Malawi's constituent college of Polytechnic, has been embroidered in scandal where its executive director falsified his doctorate qualification. This forced the MIJ Board to fire its institution head, Peter Mitunda.

The board has since replaced him with former Blantyre Newspapers Limited general manager, Jika Nkolokosa who has been hired as the new executive director on temporary basis.

Mitunda was discovered when he wanted to switch jobs where papers confirming his qualification were demanded. But since it is alleged that he indicated that he was yet to get the papers, the firm that was interested to hire him enquired at the said United Kingdom University where they learnt that he never even started pursuing his doctoral studies.

MIJ Board chairperson who is also the principal for the Polytechnic College, Charles Mataya exposed the issue through a letter dated 4 December 2008 addressed to members of staff.

“I write to inform you that Dr. Peter Mitunda's status has changed to a Mr. Mitunda with immediate effect. The change has been necessary as he did not complete his PhD studies,” read the letter.

About Gregory Gondwe

Gregory Gondwe is a Malawian journalist who started writing in 1993. He is also a media consultant assisting several international journalists pursuing assignments in Malawi. He holds a Diploma and an Intermediate Certificate in Journalism among other media-related certificates. He can be contacted on moc.liamg@ewdnogyrogerg. Follow him on Twitter at @Kalipochi.
Let's do Biz