The executive director of the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), Prof John Opuda-Asibo, has called for government support in ensuring that universities and other tertiary institutions follow regulations.
Prof Opuda-Asibo said some universities operate under the instructions of courts of law, something that does not make their operations legitimate.
“Whereas we may recommend the revoking of an institution’s license, effecting closure is very difficult to implement as those universities tend to run to courts of law. This conflicts with our mandate while regulating higher education,” Opuda-Asibo said during the inauguration of NCHE’s new premises in Kyambogo on Monday.
NCHE was established in 2003 as a result of the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act to guide, support and enhance access to relevant quality higher education at both public and private institutions.
Dr Alex Kagume, the NCHE deputy executive director, told The Observer that the council was still battling a court case with privately-owned Fairland University, based in Walukuba-Masese zone in Jinja.
In March 2013, NCHE revoked Fairland’s license after it failed to meet minimum requirements to be recognised as a fully-fledged university. These included having no staff, infrastructure, or accredited programmes but the university is still operational.
“We had refused to give them a license but they went to court and got it through a court order. Court also gave us interim orders to stop us from implementing our duties until the matter is settled,” Kagume said. “This is where we want government to help us to execute our mandate.”
According to Opuda-Asibo, the need to enforce compliance is vital since access to higher education has increased form one public university in 1986 to nine, and 47 private universities – 38 on provisional licenses and nine chartered. Today, there are 214 licensed tertiary institutions.
“Now, if all these institutions run to courts all the time, how shall we be operating if they don’t follow our guidelines?” he said.
Meanwhile, in a speech read for him by vice president Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, President Museveni said with a new home, NCHE needs to be more active in shaping the direction and destiny of higher education.
“I still emphasize that our education must be made and seen to be relevant. We should continue to invest more in sciences, technology and Engineering which are bedrock disciplines on which we need to anchor our development,” Museveni said.
The state minister for higher education, Dr John Muyingo, urged NCHE to only accredit programmes that are relevant and competitive for the labour market both locally and internationally. He said NCHE’s new home would give it a better leverage to perform its mandate as required by the law.
The new three-storeyed building, on Kigobe road in Kyambogo, was constructed by China Nanjing Uganda Ltd at a cost of Shs 5.5bn. It comprises of staff offices, a library, data center, 100-seater conference room, printery, boardrooms and restrooms.
nangonzi@observer.ug