The Education System in Malawi
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percentage spent on remuneration, which is much lower than in public institutions. Livingstonia also tends to spend a higher percentage of its income on student provisions, although this has been decreasing over the years. Student provision/allowances for Livingstonia University exceeded the percentage of emoluments in 2003/04 and have remained above 20 percent. Teaching materials and equipment have been receiving a much higher allocation at Livingstonia than at UNIMA. Yet books and periodicals were allocated 3.1 percent in 2003/04 but little or nothing in subsequent years. Catholic University has spent small percentages on teaching materials/equipment and on books and periodicals over the last two years. The other private colleges spend a much lower percentage of their revenue on emoluments, however an increase has been observed in this category of expenditure. For instance, at Adventist University the percentage has increased from 10.1 percent in 2004 to 27.4 percent in 2008.19 The expenditure at Catholic is in the same range of the public universities and set to get even higher according to the budget estimate for 2008/09, when the numbers will reach 74.5 percent. Shareworld spent only 31.7 percent of its expenditure on emoluments and benefits.20 Livingstonia University provides meals for students, which might explain the large percentage of expenditure on student provisions/allowances. At Adventist University, the students pay accommodation fees that are used to finance their meals and these fees are reviewed upwards annually. At Catholic University, parents have taken charge of student meals and the food has been completely outsourced to a private company, with the university only providing a supervisor to ensure quality of service. This is reflected in the reduction in the percentage of the expenditure on student provisions/allowances, which has decreased from 17.2 percent in 2006/07 and is anticipated to drop to 0.9 percent in the current financial year. Shareworld is not a residential institution but does assist students in finding accommodation with private lodge owners and therefore does not incur any serious costs for this category. Surpluses and Deficits Table 7.5 shows the surpluses and deficits of the expenditures for the UNIMA colleges. The data show that all colleges, including the University Office, have incurred some deficits in their expenditure. Of particular note is Bunda College, which has deficits for 2005/06–2007/08. Its trend shows a surplus of MK1,815,000 in 2004/05, leading to an increased deficit of MK 222,461,001 in 2007/08. The deficit for 2006/07 was 34.6 percent of the total income for that year. The deficit for 2007/08 was 26.7 percent. This is a substantial over expenditure and it suggests either serious underfunding or lack of financial controls and oversight. Chancellor College had an over expenditure of 18.8 percent in 2006/07 but this was reduced to 2.3 percent in 2007/08. The College of Medicine, which incurred an 18.7 percent surplus in 2005/06 incurred a deficit of 5 percent in 2007/08. Both Kamuzu College of Nursing and the Polytechnic incurred surpluses of 11.6 and 7.6 percent in 2007/08, having sustained respective deficits of 7.5 and 10.6 percent in the previous year.