The University of Malawi - the mother university in Malawi - was founded in 1964. Teaching started on 29th September 1965 at the newly established campus which used to be an Asian Secondary School in Blantyre. Only 90 students were enrolled.

By 1967, the then Institute of Public Administration at Mpemba, the Soche Hill College of Education, the Polytechnic, all these in Blantyre, and Bunda College of Agriculture in Lilongwe were incorporated as constituent colleges of the University of Malawi. Except Bunda College and the Polytechnic, the other colleges moved to Zomba in 1973 to form the University of Malawi campus. Kamuzu College of Nursing became the fourth constituent college in September 1979. In 1991 the College of Medicine was established in Blantyre as the fifth constituent college of the University of Malawi