Plan to tie student numbers to available facilities, staff

In an attempt to improve quality at universities and institutions of higher learning, the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) is to embark upon a stringent exercise to align new student numbers at institutions with available facilities and lecturers.

Saul Waigolo, spokesperson for the NCHE, revealed the council’s plans during the Ninth East African Higher Education Quality Assurance Network forum which ended on Thursday in Entebbe. The four-day forum was attended by educationists from the six East African Community member states: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.

“A number of universities are admitting students for the sake of making money, not teaching and skilling learners,” said Waigolo.

“It is the reason many of our graduates are struggling to find jobs because they don’t have the practical hands-on skills. We shall stop this,” he said.

Uganda has 52 universities, private and public, and eight other degree-awarding institutions as well as over 200 tertiary institutions. Over the years, enrolment has increased to about 250,000 students in tertiary education. However, the quality of graduates is wanting.

Hands-on skills

The move, which will affect both private and government universities as well as technical and vocational institutions licensed and accredited by the council, is aimed at encouraging the teaching of practical and hands-on skills at institutions of higher learning, ultimately raising quality in Uganda and the region.

The new plan will mean that an institution with only one lecturer in its journalism department, for instance, will not be allowed to admit more than 40 students to its journalism programme.

Professor Alexandre Lyambabaje, executive secretary of the Inter-University Council of East Africa, said universities in the region have bloated numbers and limited equipment compared with technical institutions that have fewer students.

“From 1960 to the 1990s, universities passed out better graduates because few students qualified to join them. The liberalisation of education has made it easy for students seeking degrees to access universities. But we can’t forget quality,” said Lyambabaje at the meeting.

Licence renewal

In terms of the new scheme, universities and HE institutions in Uganda will have to provide details of facilities and staffing when applying for renewal of their teaching licence. A team from the NCHE will then inspect the institutions, verify the details, and allocate a number the institutions can admit.

Waigolo said the council will be particularly strict on institutions offering information and computer technology programmes and related sciences, as well as engineering, accounting, journalism and medicine.

“The emphasis is on facilities, lecturers, laboratories and libraries. Institutions will be allowed to admit as many students as they want if they have matching facilities and resources,” said Waigolo.

A number of educationists welcomed the move. Benard Akol Otemor, curriculum specialist for business, technical, vocational education and training, said matching admissions to facilities will restrict universities to admitting only those students they can adequately teach.

“It will reduce the thousands of half-baked graduates some of these universities are passing out,” said Otemor in a telephone interview.

James Tweheyo, former general secretary for the Uganda National Teachers’ Union, said the NCHE intentions were “very good” but the council needed to study the “harsh” environment in which some universities operated. “Even some publicly-funded universities don’t have enough lecturers or facilities. Government is not staffing them.”

Funding

He said in addition to the new NCHE plan, alternative financing streams were needed. “The problem is finance. Solve it and you have quality,” Tweheyo told University World News.

Dr David Lameck Kibikyo, vice-chancellor for Busoga University, called on the NCHE to focus on “obstacles” which hinder quality education in the country and address them rather than stifle universities.

“We [higher education sector] have a weakness in research and supervision. The people who teach it [research] aren’t many,” said Kibikyo.

He said the country could look at work permit exemptions for expatriate tutors to bridge this gap. Alex Kakooza, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports, said institutions of higher learning must look to skilling students as opposed to teaching theory.

The meeting discussed other challenges affecting higher education in the region and called on governments to increase research funding. The meeting sought ways in which the regional body can help to standardise higher education quality among member states.