Mak to scrap courses with few students

Makerere University graduates leave the university after the 65th graduation ceremony last year.

PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA 

In Summary

Monetary. The university vice chancellor says it is not feasible for the institution to run such courses.

Makerere University will scrap courses that have over the years failed to attract many students, the vice chancellor Professor John Ddumba-Ssentamu has said.

Though he did not name all the courses of study with fewer students, he said science disciplines would not be affected.
“It is not feasible to invest in some of these courses because each has more than one unit and need a lecturer, something that strains the university finances. We are going to look at the courses seriously. We have to phase out some of these programmes,” Prof Ddumba told Daily Monitor.

In 2013, Prof Ddumba said Makerere University was offering 150 academic programmes.

Two years later, the university’s director for quality assurance, Mr Vincent Ssembatya, said the university would phase out diploma programmes.

He said Makerere had been investing a lot of resources on diploma courses yet the students enrolling for them were few.
Prof Ddumba’s concerns, which he expressed to Daily Monitor in an interview, come just as the university begins it four–day graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

An analysis of the institution’s 66th graduation list shows that out of the 248 programmes which will be presented in the course of the four-day activity, 118 have less than 10 graduands.

The ceremony starts on January 19 and will be officiated upon by Dr Ezra Suruma who was appointed to replace the former chancellor, Prof Mondo Kagonyera. He will be installed today.Of these, 107 are postgraduate programmes while 11 are undergraduate courses. For instance, Bachelor of Urban Planning, Bachelor of secretarial studies, Health tutors diploma and Postgraduate Diploma in Meteorology each have one student going to graduate while Bachelor of Arts will present two students.

Prof Ddumba said some of these courses were affected when the institution restructured its programmes. As a result, the university stopped admitting students to some programmes and has been in the process of seeing through students who were enrolled on the programmes at the time.

A total of 14,296 students will graduate at the country’s oldest university this week. Of these, 12,631will be conferred upon undergraduate degrees, 64 students will get their degree of doctor of philosophy, 1,196 will walk away with masters degrees, 190 with postgraduate diplomas and 215 will be awarded diplomas from different disciplines.

pahimbisibwe@ug.nationmedia.com