Makerere recalls 69 degrees
Makerere University has recalled 69 degrees after a comprehensive audit of marks of students over the past several years following allegations of forged or altered results.
The university has also summoned the recipients of the recalled degrees to appear before the committee that’s investigating irregularities in marks and academic awards.
The decision follows the scrutiny of 60,000 degrees the institution has awarded and recommendations from the committee led by Dr Damalie Naggitta-Musoke, the former dean of the School of Law.
The university deputy vice chancellor in charge of Finance and Administration, Prof William Bazeyo is due to address at 4pm on Tuesday.
READ:
Makerere moves to recall degrees issued from 2011
A former minister and several legislators are likely to be affected by the exercise.
The Naggitta-Musoke committee in its preliminary report linked the disparities to students’ results being altered at Senate level after lecturers and college and school registrars’ submissions.
Ahead of last February graduation, some lecturers at the last minute alerted authorities that ineligible students had been cleared to graduate, prompting the university management to remove names of 50 graduands from the graduation booklet and block conferment of degrees on them. The university withheld transcripts of thousands more out of the 14,000 who graduated, pending verification of their results. Without transcripts, many of the affected alumni have had headache applying for scholarships or jobs.
The unearthing of the anomalies prompted the suspension of six staff in the Office of the Academic Registrar, and they remain under police investigation.
Weeks after the graduation, Makerere in March closed the online marks system and suspended the issuance of academic transcripts. The online marks system was being used to enter and store student’s examination scores.
“We decided to investigate the results for the past five years,” the incoming Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe said recently, adding: “And where need be, we shall go deeper because all the colleges are affected and we shall continue investigating the results if there is anyone suspected to have cheated.”
