Should varsities have joint exams?

May 15, 2005

A PROPOSAL to establish a joint examinations board for higher institutions of learning last week met stiff resistance from both public and private universities.

By Carol Natukunda
A PROPOSAL to establish a joint examinations board for higher institutions of learning last week met stiff resistance from both public and private universities.
While the members of parliament considering the proposal argue that the board would ensure the same quality standards for all universities, the vice–chancellors have dismissed the proposal as irrelevant and an infringement on the universities right of academic freedom.
“How do we ensure that the products we produce are the same such that certain universities are not looked at as inferior?” asks the parliamentary social services committee chairperson, Dorothy Hyuha.
“The proposal is in such a way that if you are handling a medical examination in Kabale University for instance, it should be the same with the one in Gulu,” argues Hyuha, also Tororo woman MP.
Aggrey Awori, her Samia Bugwe North counterpart, also says the board would do away with the “quack degrees” in the country. Richard Bulaamu (Luuka) said that graduates were facing a challenge of acquiring jobs, just because they are from the ‘infant universities.’
“In a world where your university has not been known, it becomes difficult to promote your identity,” he said.
But the chairperson of the vice–chancellors forum, Prof. Senteza Kajubi, would not take that. He says universities were autonomous entities and should not necessarily be treated the same.
“We must not try to make all universities the same. We don’t want to have the initiative of self sufficiency or autonomy killed. This is debasing our education. What matters at the end of the day are end products, and not the inputs,” says Kajubi who is also the vice-chancellor of Nkumba University.
Prof. Mohammed Ndaula of Kampala International University also argues that there is no need to change the public’s perception of universities as independent. He says the move would remove the uniqueness of respective universities.
“This new idea in our system of higher education is strange. It challenges the notion of the universities as we know and understand them, their nature, how they function and the way they are perceived by the public. Institutions have been known to be credible enough to draw up their own curriculum, set their exams, grade, approve and award their own degrees,” he said.
Kyambogo University vice chancellor, Prof. Lutalo Bosa said the joint examinations board was irrelevant.
“Once you have given the university the opportunity to be on its own, then it’s sure of what and how to teach or set exams. These institutions should be given mandate of independence, under the council’s supervision,” he said.
The principal of Makerere University Business School, Wasswa Balunywa, said, “All universities and institutions offer different degree programmes. The Council should instead put more emphasis on the quality of education.”
Enock Mugyenyi, the deputy director Uganda Management Institute, also said the higher education council was responsible for setting up the quality of standards expected by universities to be met during exams.
Clause 19 of the proposed amendment Bill seeks to establish a joint examinations board for universities and other tertiary institutions whose membership and functions shall be prescribed by the minister, by statutory instrument on the recommendation of the National Council for Higher Education.
The Higher Education Council itself is opposed to the proposal. Yekko Achato, the council’s assistant director, said: “Our position is that such a body is uncalled for. It has never existed anywhere in a free world. Such a body would not only kill the institutional autonomy of universities but would also undermine Section 3 of the Universities and Other tertiary Institutions Act 2001.”

On the argument that the joint examinations board would ensure quality, Achato said: “There is no way you can ensure quality by reducing universities to the level of secondary schools.”
He said each university had its own syllabus in each course and they differed from university to university. “For instance a programme offered in one university could have more elements not taught in the other. Council only gives minimum standards of programmes, but a particular university can go deeper by giving more. That is what provides the uniqueness of universities,” Achato said.
Ends

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