Are regional campuses compromising quality?

There is a growing trend for universities to open campuses in different locations in the country.
There are many push factors to this trend including the universities desire to be present in the students’ catchment areas and the demand by key stakeholders of the university to have their presence evident in the different regions of the country.
However, Prof Micheal Mawa, the founding president of Ugandan Universities Quality Assurance Forum, says this trend comes with many challenges of starting or establishing an academic institution.
“A university campus is a complete institution in itself in terms of infrastructure, facilities, human resources and financial requirements. In addition to the teaching staff required to deliver the academic programmes, a university needs to deploy a core team of administrative, technical and support staff including a campus director, administrators, librarian as well as technical staff for effective operation,” he says.

Facilities
“Core facilities such as classrooms, laboratories, workshops, library and seminar rooms need to be in place too. Today, ICT facilities are also essential to enhance students’ learning experience,” he adds.
National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), the regulator of higher education in Uganda, is mandated by the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act of 2001 as amended, to regulate higher education institutions including the establishment of campuses through a rigorous process of campus accreditation.

“In 2016, NCHE directed all universities to declare their campuses and seek to have all campuses recognised through accreditation. The criteria for campus accreditation follows the capacity and quality indicators defined in the Quality Assurance Framework for universities,” Prof Mawa shares, adding: “This instrument defines the acceptable standards for a higher education institution in areas of governance, facilities, and infrastructure, human and financial resources. Universities are also required to have the academic and professional programmes to run at the campuses accredited.”
Notwithstanding these clear standards and the call for universities to declare their campuses, many universities have not heeded the call. It is now common to see a signpost indicating that there is a university campus or centre of learning for a particular university when you move around in a town in some parts of Uganda.
“The public needs to be aware and demand to know from the campus administrators the accreditation status of that centre. Only then can we be guaranteed of the quality of education in these campuses,” the professor notes.

Expanding presence
However, some universities have been clear about their expansion policy. Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) for instance embarked on enlarging its territory in 2013 by seeking to open at least one campus in each province.
“To this end, they established campuses in the four provinces of the Catholic Church; Ngetta campus in the north, Kabale and Fort Portal campuses in the West, Mbale campus in the East and Lubaga, Masaka and Nsambya campuses in central Uganda,” Rev Dr Christopher Mukidi, the registrar, shared.
Church of Uganda established Uganda Christian University (UCU), also has four regional campuses; Kampala, Arua, Mbale University College and Bishop Barham University College in Kabale.

Financial stability
According to Prof Mawa, to establish, maintain and promote the necessary facilities and infrastructure and to attract, retain and promote quality staff, requires a sound financial base for the university and its campuses.
He adds that basing on this, if a university wishes to expand its educational services by establishing campuses in different parts of the country, it has to make a thorough assessment of its viability in that location before starting.
In the case of UMU, host dioceses offered land and building facilities freely to start these campuses. “Fortunately, these centres were in existence as educational institutions. For example, Ngetta Campus was established where the National Teacher Training College, Ngetta was operating,” Rev Dr Mukidi explains.
Bishop Barham University College was formally a school to train vernacular languages teachers and lay readers for the western region of Uganda before being handed over to UCU in 2000 to continue serving the western part of the country.
“It also attracts students from as far as Burundi and Rwanda and any other that find it difficult to go to the main campus in Mukono,” Walter Washika, the head of communications at UCU, shares.

Administration
Looking at the UMU model, two basic principles underlie the establishment of each campus; that each one of them shall endeavour to be unique in character rather than be merely a replica of the main campus.
It also maintains that each campus shall endeavour to be financially self-sustaining after the grace period offered by the main campus.
“For example, Fort Portal campus has been designed for engineering programmes; Ngetta campus has been opened mainly for agricultural and educational programmes, Kabale was designed to deliver technical and agricultural courses, Mbale was set to focus on business, development studies and education programmes and Lubaga campus for postgraduate studies. Nsambya, which is part of Lubaga campus is for postgraduate medical training. While each campus has its niche, they also offer other courses,” the registrar shares.
The same can be seen for UCU where each campus has particular courses it offers.
For example, Kabale campus offers Social Work and Social Administration, Public Health and Public Administration; Arua offers Theology, Business Administration, Social Sciences and Education while Mbale offers Business, Computing and Technology, Theology, Education and Social Sciences.
“The only difference is with Kampala campus whose purpose is to accommodate the spill over from the main campus due to limited space hence offering almost the same courses as those at the main campus,” Washika says.

Governance
“All UMU campuses are governed by a policy approved by the University Governing Council in 2016 in accordance to the University Charter of 2005. The policy provides for a campus management structure headed by a campus director with support staff such as campus administrator, assistant registrar, assistant librarian, cashier and computer technician. These officers support the administration of the campuses,” Rev Dr Mukidi explains.
He, however, stresses that while these campuses were established in different parts of Uganda, UMU remains one university and therefore its mission, vision, values and strategic plan remain the same for all campuses.
“Equally, the University Charter, Statutes and other policy documents remain the key guiding documents for the day-to-day operations of the campuses.”

Are they beneficial?
These campuses provide short-term courses for the local population to increase their awareness on community development issues and for practical skills to enhance their competencies.
“Some of the short courses include financial literacy, best farming practices, counselling courses for school administrators, wardens and counsellors on best counselling practices. These enhance their skills to serve their communities better,” the registrar shares.
The Arua UCU campus trains the much-needed human resources in the district local governments, which leads to improved service delivery. “More to that, it is at a reduced tuition compared to the main campus,” Washika shares.
The establishment of these regional campuses has also benefitted the financially challenged students who are now able to access the same quality of education near their homes without having to incur the extra costs of transport or accommodation.

Why do some fail?
Despite the named organisational structures, some centres fail a few years after their establishments.
Prof Mawa, who is also a regional higher education quality assurance expert, says one fundamental cause for the failure of established university campuses or even of universities in Uganda, is delivery of low quality educational services.
“When the public learns that a campus is offering low quality services than provided at the main campus, there is eventual decline in student enrolment and the resultant decrease in financial resources to run the centre. It is evident that most universities in Uganda depend largely on tuition paid by students. Therefore, any decline in numbers of students in a university and or its campus has a direct bearing on the university’s income and financial health to provide quality education,” he says.

Challenges
Sometimes, the challenges these campuses face, stand in the way of delivering quality services.
At UMU campuses for instance, Rev Dr Mukidi says there are inadequate resources for their capital development. “Being distant from the main campus at Nkozi, upcountry campuses are faced with the challenge of transport and communication although the current ICT facilities have enhanced efficiency in the communication between them and Nkozi as well as between Campuses themselves.”
Washika says their main challenge is the narrow revenue base that is students’ tuition which constraints their expansion to grassroots.
However, experts maintain that if universities want to push for their presence in regions, efforts must be taken to ensure students who opt for those campuses get the most of their tuition.