How Govt should implement National Central Admission System

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OPINION

Dr Everest Turyahikayo, PhD

I refer to the article published in the New Vision on April 20, 2025, reporting that the Government of Uganda plans to implement a National Central Admission System (NCAS) for all tertiary institutions effective July 1, 2025. This policy move, aligned with the National Development Plan IV (NDP IV), Strategy 2.7 (83)(iii), is both timely and commendable. It signals the government’s commitment to transforming the education sector and aligning it with national development goals.

In recent years, Uganda has undertaken a significant overhaul of its primary and secondary school curricula. The proposed centralisation of admissions at the tertiary level is a natural extension of this transformation. However, for the NCAS to fulfil its promise, it must go beyond merely harmonising entry processes. It must be designed to address deep-seated challenges of quality, equity, skills alignment, and institutional sustainability in higher education.

A key objective of the NCAS should be to tackle the persistent mismatch between graduate qualifications and job market demands. However, achieving this requires a comprehensive national skills audit. Uganda currently lacks a systematic, up-to-date analysis of regional and sectoral skills needs. Without such data, any attempts to align admissions to labour market demand may be misdirected.

Despite the oversupply of graduates in certain disciplines, universities continue to admit large numbers of students into programmes such as Business Administration, Development Studies, and Law—not because these are priority areas for national development, but because they are popular in the eyes of students and parents. These choices are not informed by labour market needs but by institutional convenience and student preference, often shaped by inadequate career guidance at secondary level.

There is a widespread phenomenon in Uganda and much of Africa known as "degree disease"—a situation where the possession of a degree is pursued for its prestige rather than its practical value. Many students and parents view the degree certificate itself as the goal, regardless of whether it leads to employment or entrepreneurial opportunities. I have attended graduation parties where the graduate or sponsor mentions with pride the numerous degrees in their family.

As a result, universities in close proximity—sometimes within a five-kilometre radius—offer identical programmes without regard to market saturation. Worse still, there is little monitoring of teaching content or learning outcomes in these institutions. We continue to produce thousands of graduates in engineering, medicine, computer science, and pharmacy, yet few technological innovations, startups, or breakthroughs emerge from our academic institutions.

This raises uncomfortable but necessary questions: What did Henry Ford study in mechanical engineering that is missing in our curriculum? Why aren’t our graduates of software engineering creating globally competitive platforms like Facebook or TikTok? The issue goes beyond what is taught; it concerns how it's taught, the learning environment, and whether innovation is genuinely nurtured.

Currently, the minimum requirement for admission to degree programmes in Uganda is two principal passes obtained at the same sitting. This standard is applied uniformly across universities. However, in practice, due to infrastructural and staffing limitations, some universities set their cut-off points higher.  This trend will persist under the NCAS. One cannot compel an institution to admit more students than it can handle.

Just as top secondary schools admit only those with aggregates of 4 or 5 at Senior One or only distinctions at A-level, universities will likely continue to select the “cream” of applicants, particularly in competitive programmes like medicine and engineering. This means that the NCAS must accommodate institutional autonomy while ensuring fairness and transparency.

Both public and private universities in Uganda operate within complex financial ecosystems. In public universities, government funding through the Ministry of Finance is based not only on budget priorities but also on each institution’s projected revenue. If a university collects less in tuition and service fees, its budget allocation is adjusted accordingly. This model incentivises institutions to prioritise courses that attract more students, often at the expense of relevance or quality.

Private tertiary institutions are divided into two categories: those founded by religious bodies, and those established by individual private investors. The latter are almost purely profit-driven, while the former seeks a blend of profit and prestige. In both cases, the primary motivation is financial sustainability, not necessarily whether the courses offered deliver employable skills. This is where government regulation becomes essential. Education, like water and public transport, is a public good.

The state must ensure that universities do not continue offering programmes that serve neither the students nor the nation. If an institution offers a course such as Development Studies, there should be evidence—such as graduate tracer studies—demonstrating that alumni from the last ten years have been absorbed into meaningful employment. If not, such courses should be either suspended or regulated to limit enrolment until demand justifies expansion. This requires a strong legal and regulatory framework—one that is shielded from political or social interference and is rooted in evidence-based planning.

Another important consideration is Uganda’s regional diversity. The skills requirement of the western region, for example, may differ significantly from those of the north or east.

The NCAS must be responsive to such variations. Regional development plans should guide the types of courses and number of slots allocated to institutions in each area. For instance, if the oil and gas sector is growing in the Albertine region, admissions into technical programmes related to petroleum engineering and logistics should be prioritised in nearby institutions. This strategic alignment can only be achieved if admissions planning is integrated with national and regional economic planning efforts.

The current joint admissions system applies mostly to degree programmes, with only a few diploma programmes included. There is genuine concern that certificate and vocational courses—particularly those offered by private and informal institutions—will continue to be marginalised under the NCAS. Yet, some of the most impactful and job-ready graduates in Uganda today come from non-traditional institutions offering welding, electrical installation, plumbing, and auto-mechanics.

Many of these institutions are not formally recognised, but their graduates are highly sought after in both local and national job markets. To be inclusive and transformative, the NCAS must expand to cover all levels of post-secondary education and develop a framework to recognise and support high-quality vocational training institutions, regardless of ownership.

The National Central Admission System represents a major policy shift with the potential to transform Uganda’s tertiary education sector. But its implementation must go beyond logistics and tackle fundamental issues—skills mismatch, course irrelevance, institutional limitations, and financing.

If designed with foresight, backed by data, and regulated with integrity, the NCAS can be a powerful tool for aligning education with Uganda’s development goals. However, if handled casually, it risks becoming just another bureaucratic structure—efficient in form, but ineffective in substance. The time to design it right is now.

The writer holds a PhD in Knowledge Management, is a Published Scholar, Novelist, and Consultant in Higher Education

Email: turyahikayoeverest@gmail.com