The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) is considering revoking the provisional license issued to Busoga University, after the Iganga-based institution awarded suspicious degrees to over 1,000 South Sudan and Nigeria nationals last year, among other irregularities.
In 2016, media reports indicated that the council had revoked the university’s license but The Observer has learnt that this did not happen and the privately-run institution is still operational.
In a January 5, 2017 letter, signed by the NCHE deputy executive director, Dr Alex Kagume, the council wrote to the university vice chancellor, Prof David Kibikyo, informing him that it had published an intention to revoke the license in the Uganda gazette, the official publication of government.
“I write to inform you that NCHE intends to revoke … please find attached copy of General Notice No. 1054 of 2016 as published in the gazette dated December 19, 2016,” reads Kagume’s letter.
According to the gazette, NCHE will revoke the university’s license six months after the publication of the notice. This implies that the Busoga University officials have between January and June this year to respond to the council’s concerns or risk being closed.
BEYOND FAKE DEGREES
Beyond the fake degrees saga, the NCHE also found that the university has poor governance structures demonstrated by the non-existence of a university organogram and failure to recruit a university bursar.
“There is also high staff turnover in the university and lack of separation of roles and unacceptable number of qualified academic staff,” the gazette partly reads. “The academic registrar doubles as head of Quality Assurance, the deputy university secretary was also the legal officer and the vice chancellor and director planning appeared to manage the university finances.”
A separate NCHE report shows that the activities of the director of planning go beyond his declared role. For instance, he appeared to be in very many administrative activities such as the office of the vice chancellor, academic registrar and director for finance, among others, beyond the role of a planner.
Busoga University also admitted students without adherence to the minimum admission criteria as required by the NCHE and was teaching unaccredited programmes.
Yet, under section 119A of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act 2001 (as amended), “For the avoidance of doubt, no person shall operate a university, other degree awarding institution or a Tertiary Institution, without the prior accreditation of its academic and professional programmes by NCHE.”
Other issues are failure to keep up-to-date students’ records, illegal affiliations with other institutions and poor financial health evidenced by several outstanding financial obligations, thus putting the university in a precarious situation.
The NCHE also required the university to cease further recruitment of students upon publication of the revocation notice, December 19, 2016.
UNSATISFACTORY FINDINGS
In 1998, prior to the enactment of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act (UOTIA) 2001, Busoga University was granted an interim license to operate as a private institution of higher learning. The university had to expedite the process of seeking a chartered status but this has not happened to date.
According to documents and reports seen by The Observer, three monitoring and evaluation exercises were conducted by NCHE at the university but all concluded with ‘unsatisfactory findings’.
In December 2015, NCHE dispatched a team to the university to monitor the progress made by management, following an earlier monitoring visit. The NCHE members comprised Dr Fabian Nabugoomu as the team leader, Robert Ayine (technical officer) and Nellie Okullu as a member.
“The team observed that although a lot of effort had been made by the new leadership to improve the university, there was still much work required. More effort was urged towards financial stability,” Dr Nabugoomu’s team observed.
A copy of the monitoring report was also availed to Busoga University but most of the issues were not addressed by its management. Last year, NCHE sent another team to the university, this time led by Dr Pamela Tibihikirra-Kalyegira, the NCHE director for accreditation and quality Assurance, and Dr Pius Achanga, the head of the university affairs at NCHE.
This second team not only visited Busoga University, but went further to Nsaka, Kumi, Livingstone and Busitema universities, talking to vice chancellors, academic staff, students, non-teaching staff and, in some cases, members of the community.
The March 2016 supervisory team noted that the university leadership at Busoga still had much to do, as indicated by the previous monitoring team.
“The team was able to confirm that Busoga University was undergoing enormous challenges that if not urgently addressed, would lead to its closure,” reads part of the team’s report.
For instance, the university’s campuses in Kisoro, Bugiri and Jinja districts were illegal and not accredited, yet at the main campus in Iganga; they were advised to adhere to the full cycle of a three-year degree programme.
The university had shortened the study period by having trimesters or marathon programmes. Since the supervisory team had recommended that NCHE should enhance monitoring to all universities, another monitoring team was sent back to Busoga University in September last year.
It comprised Prof Wilson Muyinda Mande (team leader), George Ebine and Fiona Kunihiira (technical officers) as well as Dr Ferdinand Kaddu-Mukasa. According to this team’s findings, the university had not recruited and retained staff in senior positions such as associate professor and professor.
“It appeared the vice chancellor [Prof David Kibikyo] and a few of his trusted lieutenants were alienated by the entire system,” the findings indicated. “There were several dissenting voices among staff regarding irregular actions such as the VC recruiting people including his relatives and friends, without proper polices.”
The NCHE team also warned that graduates of all unaccredited programmes being implemented currently would not be recognised. On September 30, 2016, the university held a maiden graduation ceremony of more than 1,000 students in various disciplines at her new Bugiri campus. This campus is also not accredited, says the NCHE reports.
According to the report, Busoga University also needed to double its efforts to clear the huge amount of unpaid funds to the NSSF and Uganda Revenue Authority.
Another surprising finding in the report was that that the university was yet to publish academic research carried out since inception in 1998.
“The team concluded that all was not well at the university and, therefore, NCHE needed to act accordingly,” reads the report.
nangonzi@observer.ug