MPs want answers on expired courses

The House yesterday demanded an “urgent” official explanation and government action to resolve the reported saga of universities and tertiary institutions teaching “expired” courses.

The word “expired” has gained news currency in Uganda after the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) used it on its website to describe a plethora of running academic courses it has not accredited. 

Adversely named institutions have since defended the listed degree, diploma and higher certificate programmes, describing the purported expirations mislabels since some of them had been restructured, merged or renamed after modifying the content.

Others, according to officials of multiple universities, were under review by the statutory body that had baptised the courses as expired.

Lawmakers during a sitting yesterday said reports that some foreign universities were turning Ugandan graduates who studied the “expired” programmes away, raised the prospects of a wider implication of the problem.

“So, we need to get very clear information on this floor of Parliament and the government tells us [the] steps being taken to address these cases because what we need now is to reassure Ugandans that indeed those who are educated, their courses are okay,” Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa said.

He added: “If they aren’t okay, what can they do? How do you make a declaration as a country that our courses are expired?”

The anxiety among the legislators, reflecting a national mood, dovetails with revelations by some Ugandan graduates that universities in South Africa and Europe had declined to admit them for graduate studies on ground that their undergraduate courses were “expired”, according to NCHE listing.

According to information on the statutory regulator’s website, more than 2,000 programmes across universities and tertiary institutions in Uganda are “expired”, meaning; “inactive”, meaning unauthorised to be taught; and “under review”, implying pending accreditation decision.

Academic programmes are labelled expired when not re-accredited within specified legal time – within five years for bachelors and master’s degrees and 10 years for doctoral studies.

Mr Tayebwa at yesterday’s sitting directed that the Ministry of Education furnishes Parliament with a formal explanation on how the country got itself in such a fix.

The demand comes a day after half-a-dozen vice chancellors told this newspaper that the problem may not be widespread. They blamed NCHE for delaying to accredit programmes submitted for review.

NCHE records show that more than 2,000 programmes being taught in both public and private institutions expired five to 13 years ago.

Mr Asuman Basalirwa (JEEMA, Bugiri Municipality MP), a former guild president at Makerere University, sought explanation from the Attorney General, the principal government legal advisor, on likely legal ramifications of “expired” programmes.

“The issue of accreditation of courses and effect of studying a course which hasn’t been accredited is a legal issue. It is a legal issue that has been canvassed in courts of law, I want to request that the Attorney General takes interest in that matter so that as they come here [report to Parliament], we have a comprehensive report,” he said.

Opposition Chief Whip John Baptist Nambeshe (NUP, Manjiya) demanded that all parties responsible for the mess be held accountable, but provided no specifics.

“It is a huge embarrassment to Uganda that foreign universities are rejecting Uganda degrees. The truth of the matter is that the culprits are known, the statutory regulator of this sector is NCHE and they have been sleeping on the job,” he said, citing the oversight obligation the law imposes on the regulator.

“And even the university managements have failed?” Mr Nambeshe said.

WHAT IT MEANS

Academic programmes are labelled expired when not re-accredited within specified legal time – within five years for bachelors and master’s degrees and 10 years for doctoral studies.