Barya starts own university

By Conan Businge          
                 
PROF. Venansius Baryamureeba, who handed over Makerere’s top office on Thursday, has started his own university awarding international degrees.

The new university, making it the 31st in the country, will be known as Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU).

It is incorporated in the Republic of Uganda as a Company limited by shares, and will be housed in Tweed Towers, Plot 10; Kafu Road.

A number of people had anticipated that Prof. Barya, after quitting Makerere, would be heading to work in a foreign university. But, when asked if he is contemplating leaving, he said, “I will not. I will stay in Uganda and serve my own country.”

Asked whether he will one day be willing to return to Makerere University if an opportunity arises, he said he would. “I still have strong faith in Makerere and you never know, I may serve it again in future if called upon,” he added.

He said he started a new university, to effectively have enough accessibility to offer his services to higher education in the country. “I could have left the country. But I think it is better for me to stay and serve the country in the best way I can,” he added.

Once UTAMU obtains a license to offer local degrees from the National Council or Higher Education, Prof. Barya says, it will focus on starting programmes in management, science and technology disciplines. “These are the disciplines where a country and region, still lacks sufficient graduates,” he says.

He added that currently UTAMU is focusing on partnering with foreign universities in India, United Kingdom and United States; on reasonable rates; using face-to-face and online delivery modes.

The degrees and diplomas will be awarded by foreign universities. He said that as on now, UTAMU is in final stages of signing agreements with two universities in United Kingdom and three in United States of America.

UTAMU has just signed a contract with Amity University Online; which is the current leading educational provider in India and has excelled in the educational arena for the last 15 years.  

Amity University Online in collaboration with the Uganda Technology and Management University have already announced graduate and undergraduate programs for the academic year 2012/2013.

Prof. Barya says that Amity University Online will conduct and provide classes through, “the state of the art e-learning technology to students wherever they are.” The degrees and the diplomas taken through UTAMU will be awarded to the successful candidates by Amity University.

 All undergraduate and postgraduate academic programs will be fully offered online. Currently, it will offer courses in business management, international business, information technology, international business, among others.

Prof. Barya says that the University will at the moment not invest in construction, but will be renting a building. “But in future we will have our own premises,” he said.

He says he has already tapped enough staff and signed contracts with them to teach in his new university.

Much as he declined to offer their identities and the universities they have been pooled from, sources reveal that a number of them are from Makerere’s colleges of computing and information technology and that of business and management sciences, MUBS, and Uganda Management Institute.