Universities’ ‘expired’ courses imperil students’ futures

Monitor 26 May 2023

The future of thousands of current students and recent graduates at Ugandan universities is in danger after it emerged that courses they are pursuing, or completed, are “expired”, writes Damali Mukhaye and Lydia Felly Akullu for Monitor.

An expired or invalid course, in this case, is a degree or diploma programme not duly accredited for teaching by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), the sector statutory regulator. Such qualifications, said one highly placed source, are “legally and technically null and void”. The crisis came to the fore after the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom reportedly declined to admit an alumna of Makerere University, who had studied a Bachelor of Biomedical Laboratory Technology, to pursue an advanced degree on the grounds that the NCHE website said the programme had expired in 2015 and the student graduated in 2018.

An analysis by Monitor of the statuses of various academic programmes tenable at Uganda’s public and private universities listed on the NCHE website showed that almost all are at fault, meaning the degrees they awarded or plan to award to graduates who enlisted as students after the courses expired are invalid. Section 119A and the accompanying statutory instrument oblige degree-awarding institutions to ensure that they, alongside their academic programmes, are accredited by the regulator.
Full report on the Monitor site

Receive email updates from UWN

Global newsletters    Africa newsletters    Other
    (other includes related events and webinars)

Data will be processed according to our standard terms & conditions.

Sponsored Article

Apply for Wege Prize – Change the world and earn cash rewards

Ferris State University staff

Around the globe, university students with big ideas for making their communities and the world better and helping solve some of today’s biggest problems – pollution, hunger, waste, and more – are applying for Wege Prize, an international design competition with a prize pool of US$65,000.

Promoted by Ferris State University.

Sponsored Article

Sustainability-centred Impact Hub at Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch University staff

Stellenbosch University’s vision to be a systemically sustainable institution addressing continental and global sustainable development challenges is beginning to bear fruit. Not only is it educating future leaders, policy-makers and professionals in this space, but it is also finding solutions through research, training and development.

Promoted by Stellenbosch University.

Sponsored Article

Supporting Pride is about commitment to campus diversity

University of Victoria staff

ABET, the global accreditor of science, computing, engineering and technology programmes, is supporting Pride Month and prioritising equality, diversity and inclusion. It believes collaboration between a diverse pool of talent is a vital contributor to finding the best solutions to the world’s problems.

Promoted by ABET.

Sponsored Article

Ground-breaking research on seawater biodesalination

UAE University staff

As water scarcity reaches critical levels globally, a research team at the United Arab Emirates University seeks to revolutionise seawater desalination practices, offering a path to mitigate water scarcity while championing environmental preservation.

Promoted by United Arab Emirates University.