Lugazi University facing closure

Kampala
The National Council of Higher Education has threatened to withdraw the provisional licence of Lugazi University in six months if the problems at the campus are not solved.

In a paid publication in one of the dailies yesterday, the Executive Director National Council for Higher Education stated that “on publication of this notice, further enrollment recruitment of students shall cease.”

Some of the reasons raised in the notice include students’ complaints that they have not been studying.

The council also states that the university does not have appropriate qualified staff in the library and the computer laboratory.

Lecturers’ salaries
In the revocation notice, the university is accused of failure to pay salaries to lecturers, forcing them to hold students’ examination results.

“Given the financial crisis and outstanding obligations at the university, its sustainability is in a precarious situation,” the notice states.

The Minister of Higher Education, Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana, yesterday told Daily Monitor that his ministry is aware of the matter.

“We have handled several of their complaints and now the law must take its course,” Mr Rukutana said.

“That university has had many financial problems and we have recommended them to financiers but they have not been successful.”

He said the publication of the notice gives the university a chance of six months to salvage the situation. He said it also gives students and other stakeholders time to think of alternatives.

No govt help
“We as the ministry are not in position to help them now because they are not a government university.”
In September 2009, students went on a sit down strike protesting most of the reasons highlighted by the NCHE like lack of lectures.

Lugazi University has operated for four years and is one of the new private universities. During the September strike, students said they had complained to the university administrators several times but no action had been taken.

There was no comment from the university as no one was taking calls made to the office phones.