In 2018, the Scottish Government granted international development funding for a project entitled ‘The MalDent Project: towards a dental school for Malawi’. The grant was a partnership venture between the University of Malawi College of Medicine (now Kamuzu University of Health Sciences) and the University of Glasgow. Following development of a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) curriculum, the first students joined the course in 2019 and graduated in April 2025. There are now 124 dental students studying at KUHeS.
To date, clinical dental training has been delivered in the Ministry of Health Dental Departments at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe and the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. However, it was clear from the outset that a purpose-built teaching facility was required to make the BDS course sustainable. A significant component of the Scottish Government MalDent Project grant has funded the design work for the new clinical dental teaching facility, which also incorporates generic teaching space for other healthcare disciplines taught at KUHeS. The success of the funded design programme has facilitated leverage of $5.2m from the World Bank to support construction of the building, which is now underway.
Both the design and construction phases of the building are underpinned by a consortium of architects, engineers and surveyors from Scotland and Malawi, led by John McAslan + Partners. This represents an exciting fusion of international partnership working across healthcare, education and building construction in Malawi.
During this meeting of the Cross Party Group on Malawi, members of the academic, healthcare, design and construction teams will provide the background to this innovative project and an update on its status and progress.
