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Term Paper on Universities in Uganda
Uganda has experienced rapid upsurge in demand for education. The Government of Uganda has taken two strategic positions to address the situation: the introduction of universal primary education on the one hand, and the liberalisation of the education sub-sector on the other. This has had dramatic effects at the various educational levels that have implications for the service providers in the education sub-sector. The demand for primary education has radically increased with the introduction, in 1997, of free primary education for four children in every family. This saw school enrolment increase from 2 million pupils to over 6 million pupils by 1999. The secondary education sector has similarly witnessed a growth of over 20% in the number of government-aided secondary schools over the last ten years and a 15% increase in the number of registered secondary schools over the same period. There is equally a big demand for higher education as reflected by rising in university enrolment. This is the product of ‘pent-up’ demand for higher education and the limited capacity of the state funded Universities to satisfy this demand. The private Universities are viewed as having vast potential to widen access to higher education without incurring significant government costs. The existing structure of the education system in Uganda has been in force since the early 1960s. It consists of seven years of primary education followed by the lower secondary cycle of four years and the upper secondary cycle of two years, after which there are three to five years of university studies.
On successful completion of the primary school cycle, one can either join lower secondary school or take a three-year craft course in a technical school. However, only about 40% of the primary school graduates are absorbed into the secondary cycle, which implies that there are fewer schools than available students, presenting an investment opportunity to private investors.
Between 9,000 and 12,000 students per year qualify to join post-secondary education. However, only about 25 percent of these are absorbed in post-secondary institutions. Makerere University is Uganda's leading institution of higher learning, accounting for 95 percent of the total University enrolments. The remaining 5 percent are shared between six other Universities at Mbarara, Ndejje, Nkumba, Mbale, Martyrs and Bugema. The enrolments into tertiary institutions over the last 10 years increased by over 90 percent while the number of tertiary institutions increased by 1.8 percent in the same period. This indicates that there is need for more institutions at tertiary level to absorb the high numbers of students.
Over a period of 8 years ten (10) new private Universities have been licensed to operate. Against this backdrop, the current research attempts to discover to what extent the private Universities in Uganda have marshalled or developed the necessary institutional capacity to address the current and the anticipated demand.
Uganda has four universities, two public and two private, as well as more than twenty specialised research institutes. The oldest and most established institution of higher education is Makerere University in Kampala, the capital. Makerere is the focal point for university research and the only institution awarding postgraduate research degrees in Uganda. It also serves as the major source for providing qualified lecturers to other universities and institutions of higher education. A recent policy decision states that all its lecturers should have PhD qualifications. Some of those who are presently pursuing PhD degrees receive their training at Makerere while others are trained overseas.
Education in Uganda is regarded as a weapon, which is used to fight against the changing world. It is a vital resource for development and a source of status among fellow countrymen and women. Moreover, the Ugandan government has initiated a massive campaign to eradicate illiteracy and educate its citizens in both the urban and rural areas of the country. This campaign is reflected in the on-going Universal Primary Education Project initiated by the country's president Yoweri Museveni as a political campaign and its goal is to provide education to four children in each family in the State owned schools.
However, although the education in Uganda in on the verge of development, the system is still faced with problems, which the Government has now set out to combat through seeking donors and encouraging self-help projects to set up these facilities.
Although Education is a vital resource among the citizens of our country, you find that students complain because of long academic terms, which even after completing lack the technical skills required to obtain certain jobs so people have less trust in what is taught in the schools. Lack of facilities such as classrooms and stationary is a problem. In addition, institutions and schools are congested with an average of 85 students in one classroom. Teachers in Ugandan schools earn a low salary. On top of that, most teachers are school dropouts or students who have failed to make it to higher institutions of learning due to a lack of funds, interest, or other reasons. This has greatly diminished their incentive to teach.
To achieve a decent education in Uganda, one has got to have the ability to pay for it. Most institutions in Uganda charge high tuition fees and those who can not meet these conditions are not favored.