The academic committees of Mbarara, Gulu and Busitema universities formally released their government sponsorship admissions lists last Friday.
According to the lists, published in The Observer today, Busitema University admitted 99 students, Mbarara took in 155, while Gulu will host 165. The release follows on the heels of that by Makerere University and Makerere University Business School (Mubs), which took in 1,574 students.
According to the academic registrars of Muni, Lira and Kyambogo universities, their final admissions lists are scheduled to be released later this week.
“We shall formally release them after they are approved by the academic board" said Esther Ssekasi of Kyambogo University.
A look through the list shows a growing regional preference among some of the students applying to the institutions. Kampala and Wakiso district schools dominated admissions to Makerere and Mubs; however, there was an increasing presence of students from western Uganda, even if they are still few.
There were no students admitted from northern Uganda schools at Makerere University and Mubs. However, some of the schools in northern Uganda feature in the Gulu University admissions list.
There is a similar trend at Busitema University, where schools from eastern Uganda, also largely missing on the Makerere and Mbarara lists, feature on its admissions list, as released last week.
The government sponsorship admissions were carried out jointly between the eight universities meeting at Makerere over the last four weeks.
These included Makerere, Kyambogo, Mubs, Mbarara, Gulu, Lira, Muni and Kabale. The respective academic committees forwarded representatives to these meetings who, after making their selections, referred them to their institutions for approval, before the release.
According to Makerere University’s deputy academic registrar for admissions, Charles Sentongo, this first round of admission will be followed by a district quota intake, which takes the best students from each of the 114 districts across the country.
“We hope to have concluded this admission round by the end of June,” he said on Thursday. “After this, we will consider the special interest groups such as those exceling in sports or those with special needs.”
After this process, the universities will then commence the private admissions scheme, where paying students can apply for admission.
mtalemwa@observer.ug