University crisis: Over 1000 academic programmes expire

According to NCHE, affected universities and tertiary institutes are both public and private, but the most affected are the biggest.

Both graduate and undergraduate academic programmes are affected with some having expired as far as a decade ago.

Makerere University together with her sister university, Makerere University Business School, are the most affected as both of them have a combined total of more than 100 academic programmes that have expired.

The Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions, Quality Assurance Regulations 2008 requires that all academic programmes be reviewed every after five years.

The regulations are meant to ensure the appropriateness, relevancy and adequacy of programmes and courses of study as well as qualifications of staff and quality of students at institutions of higher learning.

Institutions of higher learning are required under the regulations to pay sh750,000 to review each academic programme. An institute with over 50 expired academic programmes therefore would have to part with over sh50m to have them reviewed.

This NCHE revelation comes at the backdrop of a recent Makerere University graduate (identity concealed) whose admission into the University of Bristol in England was rejected citing the expiration of the academic programme he had pursued.

According to Campus Bee, an online university student current affairs website, the student had pursued a bachelor of biomedical laboratory technology, which expired on 26 March, 2015 basing on the accreditation list by NCHE.

Makerere University’s Vice Chancellor, Barnabus Nawangwe, while speaking to this reporter on phone, said the matter is being handled and that the University will soon issue an official statement on the matter.

“Yes, the matter has been brought to our attention. The matter is being handled. We are working with NCHE to solve this problem. The university will soon issue an official statement on the matter,” he said.