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A disturbing story is told of a university that is now defunct, and for legal reasons, I wouldn’t divulge its details. It had a base in Mbale then but eventually relocated to Kampala. When its former learners followed up to establish the status of their academic qualifications, they were told that it had relocated to Natete. On reaching Natete, they were again told it had relocated to Masaka, and eventually, it could not be traced even on radar by the National Council for Higher Education.
Decentralization of university education should not be taken lightly but rather should be well handled and managed by the university council instead of individual lecturers. I recall meeting one of my former professors at Makerere University who had joined Nkumba University after retirement. He was surprised that somebody in some part of the country was claiming an affiliate relationship with Nkumba University and teaching and awarding on behalf of Nkumba University without the knowledge of Nkumba University.
The process of decentralizing university education should be well managed and fully supported by stakeholders if decentralization is to serve its true purpose.
Efforts by almost all universities to decentralize services far away from the center up to the periphery are now evident, which is now the catchphrase for everyone in academia. Makerere University is ahead of others when it comes to the decentralization of university education. The vision and mission statement, for example, under the College of Education and External Studies, aptly accentuates this, “taking Makerere University to the people and bringing the people to the university.” The College of Education and External Studies is empowered to conduct training outside the university on behalf of the university. This explains the significance of the term “external” on their awards.
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The Institute of Adult and Continuous Education has been in communities teaching for the last 70 years or so. Any university programs must be routed through the Institute of Adult and Continuous Studies, now renamed the College of Education and External Studies. Short of that, it may amount to wasteful expenditure by learners.
When Hon. Kadaga was the Speaker of Parliament, a few years back, she decentralized a number of parliamentary sessions, which were shifted to Karamoja. Literally, Parliament passed many laws in Karamoja, and many local governments have also followed suit, holding council sessions outside their places of jurisdiction.
The above synopsis is purely meant to demonstrate to the reader and learner that there are plausible arguments in favor of decentralizing university education to communities than centralizing it to one place. If Parliament or local governments can decentralize their sessions, why not teaching? Recall that the current local governments are creatures of decentralization under Art 176, which reasoned for pushing service provision closer to communities.
In decentralizing university education, the government or university will be expanding the job base and other attendant benefits related to the expansion of an industry.
In Kenya, for example, Kibabi University was an offshoot of Masinde Muliro University but currently, it has been constructed to unimaginable proportions and in many respects has even overtaken the parent campus of Masinde Muliro.
The Islamic University in Uganda has a series of campuses spread in various corners of the country, while others like Kampala International University have spread their tentacles beyond Uganda.
Makerere University Council has authorized the College of Education and External Studies to make itself visible in any part of the country, where all intramural programs of the university can extramurally be conducted outside the gates of the main campus.
To help learners benefit from decentralization, universities should ensure that they have a permanent presence in the area and not merely sneak and pick money learners and vanish, as captured in the introduction about some defunct university. Complications also arise with universities that eventually closed shop like with Lugazi and Fairland.
The writer is the coordinator of Makerere University Mbale Branch, Tel: 0782231577.
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