Victoria University’s bid to train 750 pharmacy students sparks quality row

Victoria University’s push to raise its annual pharmacy admissions from 50 to 750 has sparked a dispute over training standards, patient safety and access to science education.

Vice chancellor Prof Lawrence Muganga has accused critics of protecting the profession from competition. Pharmacists questioning the expansion want enrolment to match the university’s capacity to train competent graduates.

At the centre of the dispute is a letter dated September 4, 2026, from academic registrar Dr Bill Nkeeto to the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).

The letter seeks an update on an application submitted on August 11, 2025, to increase admissions across four health science programmes.

For the Bachelor of Pharmacy, it lists the current limit as 50 students per year. The university wants 250 students per intake, with three intakes annually. That would allow 750 admissions a year, a fifteenfold increase.

The letter asks NCHE to fast-track approval. It states that the university can train more students while maintaining academic and professional standards. The correspondence does not establish whether NCHE has approved the request.

Dr Derrick Aine questioned whether private universities had facilities to support such expansion when older public institutions maintained smaller admissions.

He also raised concerns about commercial interests influencing health training.

Muganga rejected the suggestion that private institutions could not develop facilities that matched or surpassed those at public universities.

“Where does anyone get the audacity to assume that private universities cannot build or set up better facilities than public universities?” he asked.

Pharmacist Martin Agaba argued that expanding access to pharmacy education must go hand in hand with protecting patients.

“Patient safety requires that academic and professional standards advance in parallel with enrolment growth,” Agaba wrote.

He questioned whether NCHE faced pressure to accelerate approval and warned against expanding numbers without sufficient safeguards. However, the material provided contains no evidence that anyone has pressured the regulator.

In a detailed response, Muganga accused the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda (PSU) of seeking to restrict training at a time when the government encourages young people to study science.

“One hand is opening the door and the other is pushing it shut,” he wrote.

He argued that Uganda should train pharmacists for opportunities beyond its borders, rather than limit admissions to the jobs available locally.

Muganga also presented the expansion as an opportunity to attract foreign students. He said students who spend several years in Uganda support landlords, food traders, transport operators and other businesses.

He accused opponents of “gatekeeping” and fearing competition. These were his claims; the supplied material contains no formal PSU response explaining its position.

Agaba’s stated position, however, supported wider access, provided quality kept pace with admissions.

“Access and quality must grow together, not one at the expense of the other,” he wrote.

The university’s application extends beyond pharmacy. It also seeks 100 students per intake for midwifery, 100 for direct-entry nursing and 200 for the nursing top-up programme, each across three annual intakes.

Muganga said Victoria University stood ready to invest and submit to quality checks.

“We are ready to train, to invest and to be held to the highest quality,” he wrote.

Neither the letter nor the exchanges supplied detail the staffing, laboratory facilities or practical training arrangements that would support the proposed increase.