A number of students and those who graduated from universities across Uganda have been left worried and confused after it emerged that a number of courses or academic programs they were studying or the degrees they have been awarded had expired.
So, what does it mean to have an expired course or academic program which then leads to an expired degree or diploma? An expired course or academic program can also be referred to as an invalid course. It is declared so if the Ugandan National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) does not duly accredit it and approve its revised course content after some period of time.
In serious countries around the world, universities check the status of a degree before offering someone who studied in Uganda admission to pursue graduate studies. So, for some time, universities such as University of Bristol in the UK have been rejecting Ugandan degrees on grounds that they were awarded at a time they were considered expired by the NCHE.
What these universities do is to simply check with NCHE to ascertain the status of the courses or degrees. The NCHE website comes in handy.
As part of its mandate, NCHE accredits academic or professional programmes (or courses) as per its mandate based on a prescribed set of quality assurance capacity indicators specified in the Quality Assurance Regulatory Framework.
These indicators include infrastructure and human resources available for implementing a programme. Furthermore, the Council assesses the quality and relevance of the programme and its learning outcomes as well as the teaching and learning methods.
The review of these courses is done periodically. Universities and other institutions are required to re-submit programs for reassessment every five (5) years for Masters, Bachelors, Diplomas and Higher Education Certificates, and every 10 years for doctorate degrees (PhDs).
In re-assessment of these courses or academic programs, NHCE looks at the implementation of regulations regarding minimum standards; adherence to the programme design, the content, the duration, contact hours and assessment of what is taught; relevance of what is taught for the job market and the nation; as well as the quality of graduates.
“Expiry of accreditation means that the programme needs re-assessment to establish whether the key aspects upon which accreditation was granted are still in place,” NCHE has explained.
You can see the list of expired courses for all Ugandan universities Here.
The list of Uganda’s best and worst universities is Here.
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