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Muteesa I Royal University Closes Auxiliary Campuses As Charter Delays

Several students in Muteesa I Royal University can no longer have lessons in their convenient localities following the closure of the university’s auxiliary study centres.

 

The University management indefinitely closed the study centres in Bugerere, Kayunga district and Buwekula in Mubende district, which had been established with an intention of expanding the university’s reach.

 

Professor Vincent Kakembo, the Vice Chancellor of the Buganda Kingdom owned University confirms the closure of the study centres, saying the affected students are asked to either shift to their main campus at Kirumba, Masaka district or their branch at Kakeeka-Mengo in Kampala.

 

Despite admitting students and conducting lessons in the different academic disciplines, the centres were operated without authorization of the National Council for Higher Education-NCHE; a statutory body responsible for overseeing universities and other tertiary institutions’ education in the country.

 

Professor Kakembo says that acting on guidance from the standards compliance team of the National Council for Higher Education, they closed the study centres such that the university can concentrate its efforts and resources on the main campus.  He says that his predecessors rushed to open up the centres before building enough capacity to effectively operate them at a level that can enable them favourably compete with other universities.

 

Besides the limited capacity in terms of human resources, classes, and other university study materials library, professor Kakembo reveals that closing the centres also became a precondition for the University to obtain its charter from the NCHE; a process that has been on for the last six years.

 

He however explains that the university has established collaboration with the Directorate of Industrial Training-DIT to allow them to start offering short courses at the certificate level, that will equip people with soft vocational skills for their survival.

 

Saul Waigolo, the Spokesperson of the National Council for Higher Education says the instruction for closing the unaccredited study centres was intended to help the university improve its quality of academics. He says that after they voluntarily closed the centres, the NCHE is going to conduct continuous assessments on the university for purposes of possible chartering.

 

A Charter is a certificate of academic authorization issued by the NHCE to an institution after it meets all the requirements and standards of academic excellence set out by the government.

 

Meanwhile, Waigolo says that the council is considering a clampdown on all universities and other tertiary institutions that are operating unauthorized campuses and study centres, especially in the countryside.

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