ORDER FROM ABOVE TO YELLOWNISE UGANDA: “The President said we restructure our programmes…’’ says Prof. John Ddumba-Ssentamu . Makerere University Finally Succumbs to President Museveni‘s Order to Scrap the Bachelor’s Degree in Ethics and Human Rights.

Comment

One of the worst night mares of neo-liberal dictatorships  such as the one currently in Uganda is empowering  young people with knowledge and skills in Ethics, Integrity  and Human Rights . These dictatorships  are at total variance with ethics , integrity and human rights and are therefore very afraid about Universities empowering young people with knowledge and practical skills in these three disciplines. The scrapping of the Bachelor’s degree in Ethics and Human Rights  is politically driven . It is not surprising that even universities dons with PhDs can bow down to Museveni’s orders. Museveni has infiltrated all institutions that matter in any democracy such as the legislature, Executive and even judiciary . The yellowness of the judiciary  came out prominently in the recent court ruling on the 2016 presidential elections. Museveni wants  to yellowrise  Uganda. He wants Ugandans to   have yellow University courses, yellow dons, yellow minds, yellow reason, yellow knowledge, yellow ideas, yellow emotions, yellow institutions, yellow structures , yellow oppositions yellow police, yellow judges, yellow soldiers , yellow donors, yellow business persons. He believes that the yellownisation of Uganda will help him to stay in power in perpetuity.

Makerere University drops 32 courses

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/Education/Makerere-University--drops-32-courses/-/688336/3165160/-/item/1/-/22vhpqz/-/index.html  

Makerere University students of Ethics and Human Rights protest the institution’s decision to merge or scrap more than 32 programmes at the university yesterday. PHOTO BY ALEX ESAGALA 

By PATIENCE AHIMBISIBWE

Posted  Tuesday, April 19   2016 at  01:00

In Summary

Report findings. The affected courses are duplications whereas others can be taught as a single unit

Kampala.

Makerere University students yesterday protested the institution’s decision to scrap 32 courses.

According to Prof John Ddumba Ssentamu, the vice chancellor, some of the courses have either been merged, dropped or restructured to give a holistic training to graduates.
“About 32 courses were scrapped and others merged. The decision was reached on Thursday. Students protesting need to understand that curriculum reviews are done after every five years,” he said, assuring affected students that the continuing ones and those joining the university this year will not be affected.

However, some of the affected students like those pursuing Bachelor of Ethics and Human Rights yesterday maintained that scrapping their courses will affect their bargaining power in the job market when they complete school.

“We don’t see why they should remove our course. Our status in the public is at stake because when we go looking for jobs, they will be branding us as people with duplicated courses,” a third year student, who declined to be named said.

Prof Ddumba explained the decision follows a report by a committee set up the Makerere University Council years ago.

Recommendations
The report recommends that 30 degree programmes be merged, 18 be restructured while 21 undergraduate diplomas, 11 undergraduate certificates and three degree programmes be phased out.

Chaired by Prof Richard Odoi Adome, the committee reviewed all undergraduate and postgraduate academic programmes, identified duplications, possible mergers and economic viability and relevance.

They are also expected to look at the unit cost for each programme, staff teaching loads and submit findings in three months.

The findings will then be presented to President Museveni who had directed the institution’s management to review its academic programmes and establish a unit cost for training a student on their various courses.

The report comes in the wake of students’ strikes opposed to demands that they complete tuition payment before sitting examinations.

Last week, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda blocked the decision to have students clear their fees and instead demanded that the university writes a document detailing the needs of the university and submit it to government before making any decision.

Prof Adome declined to comment on the report insisting they had not completed their work as they had embarked on the last stage of costing the courses.

The research was conducted in three phases with the first carrying out consultations with different colleges for possible mergers or programme phasing. The second phase looked at content while the last will establish the unit cost.

Like before, there is resistance from some staff who fear to lose jobs while others don’t want to lose the commercial attachment.
The findings are not different from that of Prof Fredrick Jjuuko whose report was submitted in 2010 but has not since been implemented.

 

Makerere to change 80 courses

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Makerere-change-80-courses/-/688334/3113210/-/view/printVersion/-/qwmx39z/-/index.htm

Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof John Ddumba-Ssentamu, on Monday said the committee tasked to review their academic programmes in 2014, was expected to submit a final report to the Senate on March 30. 

In Summary

The changes. The draft proposes that 30 degree courses be merged, 18 be restructured, while 21 undergraduate diploma courses, 11 undergraduate certificates and three degree programmes be scrapped.

Kampala. Makerere University intends to scrap or merge 83 academic courses in the proposed programme restructuring to achieve effective training for the students.
The draft report by a committee set up by the university two years ago, which Daily Monitor has seen, proposes that 30 degree courses be merged, 18 be restructured, while 21 undergraduate diploma courses, 11 undergraduate certificates and three degree programmes be scrapped.
The report suggests that Bachelor of Information Systems and Bachelor of Information Technology from the College of Computing and Information Science be merged into one substantive course because more than 90 per cent of their content is similar.
The Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof John Ddumba-Ssentamu, on Monday said the committee tasked to review their academic programmes in 2014, was expected to submit a final report to the Senate (the university’s highest academic-decision making organ) on March 30.
“The President said we restructure our programmes and we see what we can do. It has been a long process but we expect the final report on March 30,” Prof Ddumba said.
The committee, chaired by Prof Richard Odoi Adome, was expected to review all undergraduate and postgraduate academic programmes and identify duplications, possible mergers, their economic viability and relevance.
They were also supposed to look at the unit cost for each programme, staff teaching loads and submit their findings in three months. These would then be presented to President Museveni, who had directed the institution’s management to review its academic programmes and establish a unit cost for training a student on their various courses.
The students had been engaged in persistent strikes opposing the university decision to increase first year tuition fees by 10 per cent. To restore sanity at the university, Mr Museveni said the government would pay Shs2.4 billion, which the university had expected to recover from the increment. However, this has never happened, according to sources who preferred anonymity. Prof Ddumba was non-committal on the matter.
Why restructure
According to Dr Vincent Ssembatya, the head of the directorate of Quality Insurance that provided secretarial services to the committe, the review would make the academic programmes broader with core courses and provide options for specialisation, while undergraduate programmes based on single cross-cutting disciplines like development studies, entrepreneurship and communication skills shall be phased out as district courses and be studied as cross-cutting courses. “Programmes targeting the same group and address similar job opportunities shall be merged, each university student should be helped to learn how to make and manage a business out of the course they study,” he said.