Speaking to The Observer on Monday, the chairperson of the JAB and Kyambogo University vice chancellor, Prof Eli Katunguka Rwakishaya, said the board has admitted more students this year compared to 6,000 in the 2019/2020 academic year.
“There has been a call by many public institutions to increase their intakes on grounds that they have better facilities and staff to handle more students. The board sat and evaluated their requests, thus seeing an extra 1,000 students admitted across the board,” Katunguka said.
He also attributed the slight increase in numbers to change in students’ attitude towards diploma courses. Lately, he said, students are opting for tertiary courses where they are assured of quick and gainful employment as opposed to joining universities for degree programmes.
“If you look at courses like nursing, midwifery, laboratory technology and teaching, they are marketable in the field. Today, joining a university to offer a degree like Arts in Arts which is not specific and will not guarantee you any future is a complete waste of time,” he said.
Commenting on the uptake of courses, Katunguka said that the board observed a continued trend of low numbers of females in technical courses. He urged parents to encourage females to take up technical courses in order to compete favourably with males in the labour market.
Previously, as soon as the board released the successful students, insitutions would set tentative opening dates. This time, students can check out their names to the various institutions as they await a presidential address on re-opening of education institutions to non-candidates. JAB urged students to pick their provisional admission letters from institutions where they have been posted.
At the 31st JAB meeting on October 27, the state minister for Higher Education, John Muyingo, noted that the opening date for new and continuing students in tertiary institutions has not yet been fixed due to the Covid-19 effect on the sector.
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