Tony Barigye
18 September 2007
Kampala — MOST private universities in Uganda have not yet met the standards for full accreditation by the National Council for Higher Education (NHCE).
The NCHE executive director, A. B. K. Kasozi, says the non-chartered universities are not authorised to award postgraduate degrees to students.
He names the only chartered universities as Uganda Christian University that was the first to get its charter on January 22, 2004, then Uganda Martyrs on April 2, 2005 and Nkumba University in February 2006.
There are at least 21 universities in Uganda. Five of them are public institutions and 17 are private. After the NCHE became operational in 2003, it announced that all universities and tertiary institutions were to re-apply for licences and later get registered or chartered.
Out of 137 tertiary institutions, only 17 have been granted provisional licences and it is only Makerere Business Institute that is fully registered abd accredited. This means its qualifications and awards are equivalent in merit to those offered by public tertiary institutions and other registered private institutions.
The accreditation of private universities is done in three phases: An interim letter of authority is granted. this allows the institution to mobilise funding and to put in place the necessary infrastructure, but not to advertise its programmes or admit students. After fulfilling these conditions, it applies for a provisional licence, which allows it to admit students.
But after three years, the council requires that a university upgrades to a charter level. Without the latter, a university is not authorised to conduct postgraduate studies.
Therefore, a provisional licence is provided as an interim measure granting the institution time to meet the remaining requirements for grant of a charter.
But even with a provisional licence, a degree awarded does not rate the same as that of a university with a charter.
This is confirmed in Section 97, clause 3 of the universities and tertiary institutions regulations. "(3) A provisional licence sub-regulation (1) shall be valid for at least three years from the date of publication in the Gazette."
The assistant executive director to the council, Yeko Acato, stated that after inspection, monitoring is carried out annually on universities to be establish their capability to granted charters.
"The quality assurance framework, with which they judge themselves against, is guaranteed at two levels. Universities should internally audit themselves. We organise external monitoring or even people from outside Uganda," Acato reveals.
Richard Bogere, the legal officer of the council, says in a monitoring exercise done in October and August 2006, many of the universities met the required standards, but a few were still lagging behind.
"According to the review, many of the universities were following the regulations, but some have remained stagnant in academic development following the rules and procedures as set by NCHE," Bogere discloses.
Apart from recognition, once a university acquires a charter, it means its qualifications and awards are equivalent in merit to those offered by public universities and other chartered private universities.
Its students can transfer to other similar universities without losing their credit.
Before a licence is granted, the university must fulfill certain conditions which include essential physical structures for academic, administrative and technical support services, including an administration block, lecture halls, seminar rooms, library, laboratory, students' hostels and staff housing as per council capacity indicators.
It should also have well-developed operational procedures, by-laws and regulations approved by institution councils or governing boards, well-experienced permanent staff and agree to regular inspection by the council. The other quality benchmarks include academic staff comprising 60% of PhD holders and 70% of master's holders and 20% part-timers with staff to student ratio of 1:15.
Then, library books should be a book per 40 students and five students per computer. University land should measure 30 acres if in the urban and 50 in the rural and a governing body should comprise the council, senate and administration.
Others include, staff being able to publish 10 books annually, gender sensitivity, facilities for peolple with disabilities the disabled and other disadvantaged groups, the university not spending more than 50% of its budget on salaries, and only 35% of it should be derived from fees.
According to the universities and other Tertiary Institutions Act, the council has the right to strip a university of the licence if need arises. "The National Council may refuse or revoke a provisional licence in accordance with section 98 of the Act," the regulations read.
"That is, if you go below those benchmarks or violate the provisions of the charter like admitting excess students," Bogere explains.
He pointed out that during monitoring, it was found out that some universities admit more students than they can accommodate.
"We found out that some universities are too ambitious. They bite more than they can chew. Their infrastructure cannot accommodate students," Bogere says.
He says universities lack permanent and qualified staff due to braindrain, which dilutes the quality of education.
"Ordinarily, we would not want them to moonlight. They don't concentrate on quality, but on quantity," he states. Citing another problem, Bogere, says: "You cannot tell a masters' holder to teach a masters student. It is not illegal, but not ideal."
He states that the Council is urging universities to start a staff-development policy, where students are trained by universities to take up positions as lecturers.
Public accredited universities
Makerere University
Kyambogo University
Gulu University
Mbarara University of Science and Technology
Busitema University
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