By Namakula Mariam
Thomas Tayebwa, the deputy Speaker of Parliament has summoned the Ministry of Education and sports to provide a detailed statement on the on going queries about the expired courses.
Presiding over the house on Tuesday 23, Tayebwa noted with concern of how the media was awash with stories on universities teaching what is being termed as “Expired Courses” and that there was a very big concern in the country.
“I’ve received very many messages from parents as well as student leaders across the country,
wondering what’s the fate of those attending to or have already done these expired courses however, after consulting most of the stakeholders from National Council for Higher Education(NCHE) to the Ministry of Education and Sports, to Universities, this issue needs to be given serious attention,” Tayebwa noted.
Adding that It was therefore critical that the ministry of education submitted a detailed statement on this issue the following day.
According to the deputy Speaker, the country aught to be updated about the situation since some of the information he had received from a very critical stakeholder was that the original statement on expiry of courses is a fake one and therefore there was need for a clear communication and the
government stand to avert this this situation.
“We want the government to reassure Ugandans that indeed those who are educated, their degrees courses are okay, and if they are not okay, what are you going to do about it? How do we make a declaration as a country that our courses degrees are expired? It’s so scary so it needs to be handled seriously,” Tayebwa said.
The issue under scrutiny arouse from an anonymous post that was posted by one of the Guild Student.
Ms Shamin Nambassa the current guild president of Makerere University shared on her social media platform of how a student had been denied approval for a scholarship aboard having applied by in shock of the response that termed his course as expired and that therefore not allegeable.
The National council for Higher Education (NCHE) was thus put under fire to explain what was the
reason behind the so called expired courses.
According to the statutory mandate, the NHCE accredited academic or professional programs based on prescribed set off Quality Assurance Capacity Indicators specified in the Quality Assurance Regulatory Framework.
“…expiry of accreditation does not mean expiry of a programme but rather the need to reassess whether the key aspects upon which accreditation was granted was still in place,” a statement dated May 22 reads in part.
Adding that the NCHE only re-assesses a programme when there is need to implement NCHE regulations regarding minimum standards, the adherence to the program design, the content, duration, contact hours and assessment of what is taught, relevance of what is taught for the job market and the nation and lastly the quality of graduates.
These indicators include infrastructure and human resources available for implementing in addition to assessing the quality and relevance of the programme and it's learning out comes as well as the teaching and learning methods.Urging that institutions aught to re- submit their programmes for approval in the given durations. Urging the institutions to constantly seek approval in the specified duration.An expired or invalid course, in this case, is a degree or diploma programme not duly accredited for teaching by the NCHE, such qualifications are allegedly regarded ilegally and technically null and void.
This however applies to to year of entry and not graduation Student leaders from different universities in Uganda have since converged at Makerere University to sign a petition to NCHE over expired courses, why universities continue to teach the so called expired courses and the over Shs20,000 that have been spent for the last seven years as that meant to re-assess the course in contemplation and paid by each student
