“The university has not made any progress in terms of enrollment, infrastructural development and funding. The revocation of the licence does not affect the validity of any certificate, diploma, degree or other academic award granted by the university when still under the provisional license,” reads the notice addressed to the vice chancellor of KINTU.
The notice further highlights KINTU’s problems; inadequate staff to teach programmes, failure to recruit qualified full-time staff, financial indebtedness, non-payment of staff salaries and statutory obligations such as PAYE and National Social Security Fund.
Established in 2015, KINTU was granted a provisional license on September 28 2015 to operate as a private university by NCHE. In 2009, Nsaka University opened its doors but was granted a provisional licence in December 2013.
The notice of revocation indicates that the Jinja-based University also lacks qualified full-time academic staff with most part-time staff rated at 75 per cent. The university does not have a library, lacks a budget and poor financial health, among others.
“There’s no evidence of lease of land by the university from the registered proprietor who doubles as a promoter and vice chancellor of the university,” reads NCHE’s notice to Nsaka’s vice chancellor.
In accordance with Section 98(3) of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act, 2001 as amended, NCHE shall not consider any application by Nsaka and KINTU for a new provisional license within two years from the date of revocation. The affected universities join Busoga, Stafford and Fairland Universities whose licenses have been revoked by NCHE.
BACKGROUND
In May 2018, NCHE’s accreditation and quality assurance committee recommended to council a notice of intention to revoke the provisional licenses of Nsaka and KINTU.
Since 2015, NCHE had conducted two monitoring visits and one supervisory visit to Nsaka University with a view to nurture it and assess its progress over time. However, the university had not made progress in enrolment, staffing levels, financial health and that non-compliance had continued to persist from the time it was granted a provisional license.
In one of NCHE’s visits on April 4, 2018, student enrolment had declined from 77 in 2015 to 30. The university was also teaching six unaccredited programmes; Bachelor of Arts in Education, Bachelor of Procurement and Logistics Management, Diploma in Information Technology, Diploma in Secondary Education, Diploma in Procurement and Logistics, and Diploma in Mass Communication.
The report also indicates that Nsaka University did not have a budget, university council meetings were irregular, most staff were part-time at 75 per cent, and did not have a library, among others. Since inception in 2009, the university had never held any graduation as of April 4, 2018.
At KINTU, there were only 10 students in five programmes which was not economically viable, according to NCHE.
“The university council was not fully constituted with absence of students and staff representatives. There were issues of non-payment of staff salaries since April 2016 [almost two and a half years], inadequate academic staff (one) with competence in Theology to teach Bachelor of Theology while the number of part-time staff at 77.7 per cent,” reads the NCHE 2018 report.
KINTU’s premises in Mengo were also found with dilapidated buildings while the university was financially indebted to a tune of more than Shs 1 billion.