Makerere graduates to wait longer for transcripts

About 12,000 students who graduated from Makerere University last month will have to wait longer for their academic transcripts because there is no staff at campus to print them due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“The transcript papers might come but people are not working. People are at home. They have no permits to come to work,” Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, the university Vice Chancellor, said yesterday.

President Museveni closed all institutions of learning on June 6 for 42 days following an increase in Covid-19 cases.
A highly placed source yesterday told Daily Monitor that the university officials picked 30,000 copies of transcript blanks from Entebbe International Airport on Tuesday.

The source, however, said the materials only cover transcripts for two academic years, including those who graduated last month (2020/2021 academic year) and those slated to graduate this year (2021/2022 academic year).

“The university started procuring these blanks in 2018, meaning it has taken it two years to receive them. People say the university should have procured the materials for at least four years to avoid further crisis,” the source said.
Prof Nawangwe attributed the delays to several disruptions.  

“We had to import them and in the processes were delayed in UK where we get them from due to Covid-19 challenges. Even when they arrived, they were released [after a month] by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA)who insisted that the university pays taxes claiming these were not educational materials yet it had paid them (taxes),” Prof Nawangwe said.

He added that when URA finally released the materials, there the lockdown had already been imposed.
“The university is making all possible arrangements for a few staff to be able to work on those transcripts. The process may not be as fast as it would be expected during normal times, but it’s good we now have the materials,” Prof Nawangwe said.
He said the university would notify graduates once the transcripts are ready.