Computer Science Department is one of the seven departments in the Faculty of Science. Up until 2012, when it became a fully-fledged department, Computer Science was one of the Sections under the Mathematical Sciences Department. For the past 15 years or more, Computer Science Department has been graduating more than 20 students every year at undergraduate level.

Computing in general is a discipline which is developing rapidly both in depth and in scope. It has so many different areas of specialization to cater for the software, hardware, and networking. There is a growing recognition, therefore, that computing has matured as a professional discipline and requires specialized programmes rather than a sequence of courses within a general degree structure. As a result, the existing general BSc. degree, with Computer Science as a major, cannot sufficiently address current developments in computing and specialisations required by industry.

Currently, it has three specialised undergraduate programmes and a university certificate programme:

1. BSc. in Computer Science – with the aim of providing students with an understanding of the core aspects of Computer Science and related applications. It concentrates on key emerging areas in computing, including mobile applications development, geospatial computing, games programming, research methods and ethics in computing, cloud computing, machine learning, and Internet governance
2. BSc. in Information Systems - with the aim of providing students with an understanding of the core aspects of Information Systems including areas such as systems planning (business cases, tender evaluation), enterprise architecture, ICT governance (strategic planning, performance measurement), aids to human decision making, social networks, value systems, viable systems theory, household IS and e-government
3. BSc. in Computer Network Engineering - with the aim to build capacity and a cadre of individuals to serve the communications and network institutions in Malawi and the region. It cuts across the electrical engineering perspective (where networking involves design and analysis of multiple access techniques, ways of coping with network congestion and losses) to the computer science perspective (where networking involves designing the architecture of computer networks, network programming, network security and optimization)
4. University Certificate in Computer Science

At postgraduate level, the department has two programmes:

1. Master of Science in Informatics - The Masters programme is offered jointly with the Polytechnic, a sister college in the University of Malawi
2. Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science.
3. Shortly, the department will introduce an MSc. in Computer Science and Bioinformatics and a PhD in Information Systems