Kampala — Students joining Makerere University under the district quota system will not enrol for the top tier courses. "For the district quota admission, candidates are also encouraged to apply for programmes which are not available for national merit," reads part of the admission guidelines for government-sponsored students.

This means that such students cannot study courses like Bachelor of Pharmacy, Medicine, Law, Agriculture, and engineering courses. A total of 896 students are to be absorbed under the district quota system. The university has, however, allocated courses like Bachelor of Arts in Arts, Community Education, Social Sciences and Library and Information studies for these students.

"Programmes which have slots for national merit in most cases receive very limited candidates, sometimes none," said a senior university registrar who did not want to be named because he thought the issues were sensitive. The students to benefit from the district quota system are picked by their respective home districts basing on the performance of the candidates.

The Ministry of Education has lined up 80 districts that will nominate students but some university authorities yesterday told Daily Monitor that it does not apply to those districts that were proposed or created after students had sat for last year's UACE examinations. The government sponsors 4,000 students in all the five public universities of Makerere, Kyambogo, Mbarara, Busitema and Gulu.

With effect from the 2005/2006 academic year, the admission policy has been that 75 per cent of the government sponsorships are competed for nationally on merit.

At least 2, 608 A-level leavers, who excelled in last year's UACE examinations, won government scholarships at public universities. About 80,000 missed out.