The college became exclusively in-service in 1970 to service primary school teachers and administrators and was renamed NISTCOL. In 1975 Advanced Primary Course (APC) and Advanced Industrial Arts (AIA) was introduced.

These were upgrading courses for primary school teachers who had the necessary school certificate qualifications. These were one-year courses. In 1989 Diploma in Basic Education for Science, Mathematics and English were introduced which was later in 1995 affiliated to the University of Zambia under the name of Secondary Teachers’ Diploma. In 2005 Diploma in Education Management by distance learning was introduced.

This has continued to date as the Education Leadership and Management course.

NISTCOL was pronounced a University by the Zambian government in 2011, but transformation into Chalimbana Unversity in 2013 through the statutory instrument Number 111 of 2013. This was followed by the inauguration of Chalimbana University, in the same year. Consequently, the institution commenced degree programmes in addition to the Diploma courses that were already being offered. Chalimbana University has now nine schools that are offering a balanced academic, and qualifications that are highly sought after by employers.

The academic strength of the University is grounded in a wide range of outstanding programmes of which each is set to achieve excellence. The Unversity is taking even greater advantage of its distributed strengths while facilitating innovations and creativity as it strives to address the issues brought out in the 7th National development plan.