Mzuzu University was established by an Act of Parliament of July 1997 as the country’s second national university. The idea was to address the issue of limited access to tertiary education in Malawi.  As of 2008 Education Statistics, the two national universities have only managed to enrol 0.03% of the eligible school leavers using the face-to-face and residential delivery mode.  This figure is a far-cry from the international expectation of 35% access to tertiary education of the total population. The two options for increasing and broadening access to tertiary education are expansion of the physical infrastructure for residential and face-to-face delivery mode, and offering programmes through the open and distance learning delivery mode.  The first option is very expensive in terms of finance and time required.  The second option sounds feasible and cost-effective. Accordingly, Mzuzu University opted for the open and distance learning delivery mode as a realistic option for increasing and broadening access to tertiary education. To this end, Mzuzu University established the Centre for Open and Distance Learning (CODL) in July 2006 to plan, prepare and coordinate offering of programmes through the open and distance learning delivery mode. The idea is to give opportunity to those qualified but not enrolled in the residential and face-to-face delivery mode to access tertiary education.  Mzuzu University is planning to use a range of instructional systems including, print media, radio, television, multimedia, Internet-based media, and web-technology in delivering programmes through open and distance learning.