Sheila Ponnie
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. Fresh details have emerged over the registration status of Kampala University following a lengthy tussle between the Juba campus and the mother university, a squabble that left over 300 students unable to graduate in June 2022.
The Deputy Chairperson of the Higher Education Committee at the Reconstituted Transitional Legislative Assembly (TNLA), Zacharia Makuer, was the latest to join the fray, casting doubts on the registration status of the institution.
Makuer said the college did not have proper documentation, and that the committee had previously urged the management of the institution to have it registered, but all that fell on deaf ears.
“What we know is that the university began the registration process but fell short of providing proper information to the ministry of higher education. “Kampala University was one of the 20 universities in the country that were closed down by the ministry of higher education years ago,” he Makuer told City Review in an exclusive interview.
In June, about 300 South Sudanese students from the Kampala Juba-based university were denied graduation by its purported parent institution in Kampala, Uganda. The administration denied the existence of the Juba Branch.
Prof Badru Kateregga, the University’s Vice Chancellor wrote to the Principal of the Juba-based in January 2017, stating that the government of South Sudan had demanded $50,000 in registration fees. Kateregga stated that the figure was “unjustifiably exorbitant”.
He refused to pay.
“When you go and see the students, come from a particular area and when you ask them to close they feel you are targeting people from a particular region, so it becomes difficult to handle the issue,” he said.
He admits that Kampala University lacked the requirements for registration citing problems with credentials.
“To run a university, you must have two to three PhD holders to manage some colleges,” he explained.
He wondered why Kampala University started with 25 colleges without a single PhD holder.
Questionable admission
Makuer has also raised concern over the manner in which students were admitted to the Juba campus, further adding salt to the injury. In a shocking statement, he said he had witnessed cases of students who had been registered without secondary school certificates.
The lawmaker said it has become a concern to the legislators as the management of the university is not taking the step to resolve the current impasse.
“We are hearing from the media, we thought this impasse was going to be over soon. We didn’t know it would take this long to resolve the students’ concerns,” Makuer said.
He said they had advised the Vice Chancellor of Kampala University to approach the Ministry of Education to register and operate under the laws but the University declined to do so.
“The ministry is trying to establish proper systems so that academic qualifications attained from the university are accepted universally,” he said.
The legislator hinted that most private education institutions in the country including universities, and primary and secondary schools are giving fake academic certificates to unsuspecting students.
“The environment in which they operate is not conducive. They have not created an environment for learning. People think there is money in Juba and they want to collect that money from the students and this is where our children are being cheated,” he said. “They don’t care whether the qualifications they are giving our children will be useful or not, they don’t care.” he lamented
Makuer said the ministry of higher education can only become effective if the investors and citizens cooperate so that the rules are enforced for the benefit of all stakeholders.
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