42 PhD students stopped from graduating at KIU

By John Semakula and John Masaba

The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has directed Kampala International University (KIU) to halt the awarding of 42 PhDs until they are verified.

The PhD students were to graduate on Saturday during the university’s ninth graduation ceremony.

But on Friday morning, the executive director of NCHE, Prof. A.B.K Kasozi, wrote to the office of the university’s vice-chancellor stopping the graduation of the 42 students.

In a letter which New Vision saw, NCHE was challenging the university’s ability to pass out such a big number of graduates with PhDs.

“NCHE has received news that you are going to graduate 42 PhD students. Last year, you graduated over 20 PhD students. NCHE is concerned about your capacity to graduate such a number in a span of two years,” the letter read.

Kasozi set out conditions for KIU to beat before the 42 PhD students can be allowed to graduate.

The conditions included submission of the external examiners’ reports on each of the students, the period each student had taken to complete the programme and the list of external and internal examiners. NCHE also stated that at one point, the university may require verifying all the dissertations of the 42 PhD students.

When contacted for a comment, the university’s public relations officer, Chris Mubiru, said they had not yet received the letter and that there was no way they would stop the students from graduating at the last hour.