Scores miss Makerere graduation

By Innocent Anguyo

A reasonable number of qualified Makerere University students will miss the institution’s 64th graduation ceremony that begins on Tuesday, the student’s guild information minister Lillian Aber has said.

It is alleged that names of scores of eligible Makerere University students are missing from the graduation list due to late clearance for graduation. The final deadline for students to clear for graduation elapsed on January 15 2014.

Makerere University students led by the students’ guild on Monday met the Deputy Vice Chancellor In charge of Academic Affairs, Dr. Ernest Okello-Ogwang and the Academic Registrar, Alfred Masikye over the omission of their names from the 64th graduation booklet.

According to Aber, efforts of the students to convince the university to include their names in graduation list have hit a snag after Masikye told them it was too late to make such a move.

“We visited the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Dr. Okello-Ogwang) who subsequently referred us to Academic registrar. But he (Academic Registrar) told us it was too late to add the names of the students to the graduation list,” said Aber. Aber says the names of the students were unfairly omitted from the graduation booklet.

Nevertheless, Makerere alleges that names of some of the students could have been genuinely excluded from the booklet over retakes, debt to the university and missing marks.

To date, Makerere has failed to establish the number of eligible students who have been unfairly sidelined for the forthcoming graduation ceremony, saying names of all the students who qualify to graduate this year are in the booklet.

But days after the students’ guild academic minister, Andrew Mujuni revealed that at least 70 students from MUBS are affected, the number of students who claim their names have been unfairly omitted from the booklet continues to grow day by day.

Over the weekend 18 students from the College of Humanities and Social sciences and the College of Computing and Information Sciences reportedly registered with the guild as those whose names have been falsely omitted from the graduation list.

Martin Ssenono of Records and Archives Management is one of such students who claim their names have been unfairly omitted from the graduation list.

Ssenono has a Second Upper degree with a CGPA of 3.74 but his name is not in the booklet, though it was published in the initial list earlier pinned at his college. He insists he is not missing marks and cleared in time.

As for people like Ssenono, Makerere publicist Ritah Namisango says, “I know that if you have satisfied the requirements for graduation, and for any reason be excluded from the graduation booklet, you are requested to write to the college authorities and on verification, the department of Academic Registrar will issue you with a transcript.”

Makerere University is set to graduate at least 12, 616 students in her 64th graduation ceremony.