NetTom@Malawi

Download our Project reports

Overview

Network for Capacity Building and Knowledge Exchange in Transportation Operations Management in Malawi

Transportation investment opportunities are vital to the wellbeing of Malawi. The extent to which the country can develop and operate a high quality and efficient transportation infrastructure has a direct bearing on the economy. Since the country is landlocked, transport efficiency has a very important impact on the country's trade flows, the overall cost of goods delivered internal and external competitiveness and on the economic well being and quality of life enjoyed by all the people in the country. The country has also immense economic growth potential as a result of its vast natural resources, large population and large unmet demand. For this potential to be effectively harnessed there is need for pragmatic economic policies supported by a sound transportation planning and infrastructural base. The government has recently adopted Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSR) where transportation is one of the pillars to drive this need. Furthermore, the deepening commitment of government to transportation sector has also been demonstrated through a series of signed protocols for regional co-operation in matters of transportation under Southern Africa Transport and Communications Commission (SATCC).

In Malawi the profession of transportation planning has been mainly carried out by those who all obtained their education abroad. Malawians wishing to take up transportation planning as a career are obliged to find funding to study abroad. Such funding is becoming increasingly scarce and extremely expensive, with a concomitant reduction in numbers being so trained. The professional body of Malawi Charted Institute of Logistics and Transport (MCITL) is also becoming increasingly alarmed at the attrition rate of their members, because of retirement, HIV/AIDS pandemic and emigration. The future supply of these specialists is uncertain. Therefore, an increasing dependence upon expertise from abroad is likely unless measures are taken to fill the widening gap. However, this has proven costly, and such experts do not have the empathy, which Malawi-trained Transportation planning professionals would have. In addition, training abroad has become very expensive. The country has a desperate need for locally trained with advanced knowledge in transportation to address challenges facing the transportation sector. These people are needed if the country is to continue to progress economically. If a transportation operation planning strategy course were to be started now, it would soon begin arresting the worsening situation the transportation sector finds itself in. It has long been the ambition of the Polytechnic to introduce a transportation planning course to address this challenge. The justification for such a course is based on the desire for the nation to be self-sufficient as far as is possible and sustainable, reducing the need for use of the scarce foreign capital.

NetTOM Partnership

Transportation operation planning strategies cut across many disciplines including applied economics, urban planning, civil engineering, geography, business administration, industrial engineering, information technology, public policy and administration. Elements of Transportation operation planning strategies can be found in all of these disciplines. A number of universities in the world are now moving from focusing on a single discipline. In such programs, transportation is viewed as an academic specialization rather than a cross-cutting field. The proposed postgraduate diploma in Transportation Operation Planning strategies will feature a multidisciplinary curriculum as well as a set of new interdisciplinary courses.

The proposed postgraduate diploma in Transportation Operation Planning strategies will involve Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Commerce at the Polytechnic a constituent college of the University of Malawi, Malawi College of Accountancy and Centre for Bridge the Digital Divide of Washington State University. These institutions and faculties collectively provide baseline capabilities. They offer opportunities for collaboration and synergy.

NetTOM Goals

The Faculties of Engineering and Commerce, Malawi College of Accountancy and Centre for Bridge the Digital Divide of Washington State University wish to provide a course whereby the graduate has sufficient knowledge and skills in the art and science of Transportation Operation Planning Strategies to plan, design, operate, deploy complex transportation systems and also follow a professional career.

A graduate in Transportation Operation Planning Strategies will be eligible to register as a Student Transportation Operation Planning Strategist with the Malawi Charted Institute of Transport and Logistics Registration Board, in anticipation of taking the Board's Examination for Full Registration after completion of the requisite period of professional experience. The Malawi Charted Institute of Logistics and Transport should therefore regard the course as of adequate standard for recognition, and this has been done through consultations with Malawi Charted Institute of Transport and Logistics. It should be noted however, that the objective is not just to feed Transportation Operation Planning Strategists into the profession; some graduates may not choose to enter into the field of Transportation Operation Planning, but prefer to pursue other related disciplines.

The Transportation Operation Planning Strategy Postgraduate Diploma course is designed to provide a broad-based education in the discipline. Given the diverse and dynamic nature of transportation industry, the course seeks to focus on developing competence in core areas of professional expertise together with the development of appropriate skills. This is evident in the coverage of areas into which professional practitioners are expanding their activity by encouraging students to go beyond traditional approaches. However, the overall objectives of the Transportation Operation Planning Strategies (TOPS) project through the partnerships of the parties include:

  1. to enable the country meet a growing need for people with advanced knowledge in Transportation Operation Planning Strategies in the country.
  2. develop human capacity at the Malawi Polytechnic and Malawi College of Accountancy;
  3. put in place learning facilities (hardware and software) for members of staff and students at the Malawi Polytechnic and Malawi College of Accountancy; and
  4. Develop course modules in transport operation planning strategies initially at postgraduate diploma level leading to a master's level.

NetTOM Courses

TOM-501 Transportation Operations and Policy: Survey Course
Objective: Provide overview of freight and passenger transportation sectors (private and public) including multi-modal transport, planning, and economics of operation.

TOM-502 Transportation Interaction and Land Use
Objective: Introduce students to the connection between transportation and land use and transportation interactions.

TOM-503 Strategic Transportation Management
Objective: TOM-503 Provide overview of management and strategic planning as it applies to decision making in the transportation industry.

TOM-504 Maintenance and Management of Transport Infrastructure
Objective: Enable students to understand the principles and procedures that underlies effective maintenance and management of transportation infrastructure at the local, national, and regional levels.

TOM-505 Transportation Financial Analysis
Objective: Ensure that students understand, interpret, and relate economic and financial implications of the regulatory and policy decisions on the firm and be able to make a cost benefit analysis, assessment of policy and regulatory decisions made, and the implications they have on cost, price, service, returns to the firm, and society at large.

TOM-506 Quantitative Techniques to Transport Planning
Objective: Acquaint the students with statistical methods and modelling techniques to facilitate solutions to transport management problems.

TOM-507 Intelligent Transportation Systems
Objective: Provide overview of the role of information technologies in supporting efficient passenger and freight mobility including potential inter-modal applications.

TOM-508 Transportation Business
Objective: Provide students with essential background and understanding of business entrepreneurship principles for creating and supporting the efficient operation of transportation enterprises.

TOM-509 Highway Engineering
Objective: Enable students to gain an understanding of the criteria, procedures, and methods for design, construction, and operation of highways.

TOM-510 Transportation Cost Analysis and Pricing
Objective: Develop students' knowledge and ability to use operation tools in decision-making for transportation cost analysis and pricing issues.

TOM-511 Construction and Transportation Project Management
Objective: Provide a theoretical basis relating to critical thinking and management science to enable the postulation of viable solutions to problems in transportation construction management context.

TOM-512 Clearing Forwarding and Shipping Management
Objective: Provide an overview and principles underlying clearing forwarding and shipping management as it relates to transportation.

TOM-513 Legal Aspects to Transportation
Objective: Prepare students with an understanding of the principles of law, conventions, regulations governing the transportation sector, which will enable them, make sound and informed judgements in the legal transportation business environment.

TOM-514 Introduction to Research Methods
Objective: Introduce students to principles of research and methodologies applied to transportation sector.