Five leading Ugandan public universities are offering over 220 expired courses or academic programs, a report by the Auditor General has revealed, casting a dark cloud on the quality of accreditation and higher education in general.
The findings are contained in an annual audit report for Financial Year ending June 2023. In the report John Muwanga, the auditor general, and his team examined how Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) spent funds Parliament allocated to them in the 2022-2023 financial year (FY).
The Auditor General reviewed 629 academic programs or courses offered in five public universities.
Out of these courses, 222 had expired, meaning their accreditation was yet to be renewed. The number of accredited courses or academic programs stood at 332. The five universities had sent up to 138 courses to the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) for accreditation.
Makerere University, the country’s oldest and largest higher learning institution, leads with 120 expired courses. The list also has Kyambogo University with 63 expired courses, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Must) with 21, Makerere University Business School (Mubs) with 15 and Gulu University with three.
Expired or unaccredited courses (academic programs) put the future of students pursuing such courses at stake since their qualifications can be questioned by employers in the job market and their validity challenged by other education institutions where they would want to pursue further studies.
Recently, there were reports that Nigeria had rejected Ugandan degree certificates. But NCHE denied the reports.
Last year, The Pearl Times reported about hundreds of expired courses offered at several universities and institutes across the country. (See Details Here, There and Over There)
