UMI sh65b expansion kicks off
Mar 31, 2012
Uganda Management Institute (UMI) has finalised preparations to commence a massive infrastructural expansion plan at an estimated cost of sh65.3b, to accommodate the growing number of students and offer better quality education.
By Conan Businge
Uganda Management Institute (UMI) has finalised preparations to commence a massive infrastructural expansion plan at an estimated cost of sh65.3b, to accommodate the growing number of students and offer better quality education.
But it will be done in phases, according to the institute’s administration.
The Director General of UMI, James Nkata, who was speaking at the institute’s 10th graduation on Friday, said the institute is in the final stages of implementing Phase One of the Master Plan.
The first phase is expected to boost the institute’s capacity to generate resources to finance the latter phases.
He said that in Phase One, emphasis will be on expanding classroom capacity to accommodate more participants on the evening and weekend streams.
The work, to be done in five phases, will be completed in three years. The first phase will cost over sh12.2bn. It will include the rehabilitation of hostels and construction of a five-storey administrative and academic block, according to Nkata.
He noted the internally generated funds are inadequate to meet the recurrent as well as capital needs of the Institute. “This resource constraint has led to allocation of priority funding towards direct costs of teaching and delivery of programs,” Nkata added.
“This will generate more resources for the other phases,” Nkata explained. He appealed to the Government for more financing. The institute' publicist Harriet Adakun, also said that the institute will gradually get a complete new look, in the next few years.
A total of 2,081 students graduated yesterday at the institute. Of these, 48% of the graduands are females and 52% males. Of the graduands, 255 will receive the Master's degree awards, 1,653 postgraduate diplomas and 173 ordinary diploma awards.
The health minister Christine Ondoa, retired IGP John Cossy Odomel, Prime Minister Press unit boss Kyetume Kasanga and several Vision Group staff Norman Katende were among the graduands yesterday.
The Chancellor Florence Mugisha, who conferred the degrees and diplomas upon the students, also thanked Government for the support accorded to the institute, especially in regard to infrastructural development.
The Uganda Management Institute was established in March 1992. Its aim is to strengthen the management and institutional capacity of the public, private and non-governmental sectors in Uganda.