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The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa has asked the Ministry of Education and Sports to review policies relating to accreditation of universities as a way of guarding quality higher education.
Tayebwa made this call while presiding at the 4th graduation ceremony of King Ceasor University (KCU), on Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at their main campus in Bunga, Kampala.
Tayebwa said that the current guidelines make it difficult for universities willing to teach sciences courses and that this has pushed focus to courses that do not necessarily meet the job market needs.
“I request that you redesign the policies on accreditation of universities and review the courses to be offered because many are taking short cuts offering courses where the requirements for accreditation are minimal; they are simply offloading jobseekers to the market,” said Tayebwa.
He added that, ‘there are universities which are half of what King Ceasor University is but are already celebrating charters, yet for us who are running sciences getting a charter is not easy, the requirements are many’. ,”
As the chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees, Tayebwa commended the KCU for focusing on science and technology courses cognizant that of the 240 students who graduated in different fields, 109 were students of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.
The Minister of State for Higher Education, Hon. Chrysostom Muyingo applauded the university for daring to invest in training of medical doctors saying it is not an ordinary task.
“Let me single out the school of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences; preparing the medicine graduands you have presented today is no mean feat and I am informed those graduating today spread across 11 countries. This demonstrates that Uganda offers higher quality education,” Muyingo said.
Some of the graduates during the awarding ceremony in Bunga
The University Chancellor who is also the founder, King Ceasor Mulenga reiterated the urgency for Africa to utilise technology in education in order to catch up with the rest of the world.
“We are very late in technology yet it is a serious enabler. Countries that will succeed tomorrow are those that have embraced technology. Probably after God and food, the next will be technology,” said Mulenga.
The urgency to integrate technology was re-echoed by the Chairman of the University Council, Hon. Chris Baryomunsi who is also the Minister for Information, Technology and National Guidance.
“As the minister for digital transformation, the future is technology and this university is focused on harnessing the digital space,” Baryomunsi said adding that, ‘in some Universities abroad, there are computer assimilations used to teach medical courses such as anatomy. Through KCU, we want to take technology to a higher level’.
Kampala Archbishop conducts mass at the university
The Kampala Archbishop, Rt. Rev. Paul Ssemogerere who presided over the day’s thanksgiving mass thanked KCU for targeting the poor who are significantly being funded through the university scholarships.
The university awarded diplomas in Nursing and Clinical Medicine, degrees of Bachelor of Nursing Sciences, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.
There were also awards for the degrees of Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Oil, Gas and Energy Management, Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Agriculture, Bachelor of Computer Forensics and Criminal Investigations and Bachelor of Petroleum Geoscience.