Universities set to raise cut-off points

Universities are likely to raise their entry cut-off points for first year students slated to join for the 2021/2022 academic year intake.
Mr Charles Ssentongo, who heads admissions at Makerere University, yesterday told Sunday Monitor in an interview that the cut-off points always fluctuate every academic year depending on the performance of students in the Uganda Advanced Certificate Education (UACE) exams.
He said since candidates who sat for the 2020 UACE exams performed better than those who sat for the 2019 UACE, their cut-off points will automatically be hiked for some of the courses.
“The university does not hike or reduce the cut-off points. This is done depending on the performance of the students each academic year.
Makerere usually admits 1,800 students on government scholarships and 20,000 on private schemes annually.
Candidates who sat for the 2020 UACE and are eligible to join universities and other technical institutions posted better performance in the just released results.
Government usually sponsors 4,000 students who are distributed among the public universities across the country.
The country now has 11 public universities.
Similarly, Prof Eli Katunguka, the Kyambogo University vice chancellor, said since students performed better in the 2020 UACE exams, the cut-off points will automatically be hiked.
He said Kyambogo would want to take the best students to reduce failure rates.
“Previously, the university has been taking students with low points and we have been having higher failure rates. The Senate will sit soon and decide on the numbers of students we should take,” Prof Katunguka said.
Initially, Kyambogo could admit more than 15,000 students and about 8,000 could turn up.
In the 2020 UACE exams, more candidates attained three principle passes compared to those who sat for the 2019 UACE exams.
A total of 41,411 students attained three principle passes compared to 38,737 who sat for the 2019 UACE exams.
The cut-off points for government sponsorship are usually higher than those for privately sponsored students.
Best students in various schools and districts benefit from the government scholarship.