University hails Museveni over charter

EDUCATION

International Business, Science and Technology (ISBAT) University has lauded President Yoweri Museveni for appending his signature on a charter and instruments of power document to enable the university award higher degrees.

"We are grateful to His Excellency the President for assenting to the charter. We are grateful to the Minister of Education, Janet Museveni and her team in ensuring we get the charter," Fred Omach the chancellor of the ISBAT University told reporters. 

This was during a press conference at the University campus located on Lugogo Bypass in Kampala.

The University was granted a charter by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) early this week after fulfilling the requirements.

Omach also thanked the regulator for guiding the university in securing the charter. 

He said the university is now going to be known internationally and nationally and will embark on introducing new courses. 

He said the acquisition of a charter grants the university a right to hold its first graduation ceremony on November 28.

A total of 210 graduands are expected to be awarded, degrees.

Robert Kabushenga, the Vision Group chief executive officer is expected to give a keynote address during the graduation ceremony.

ISBAT acquisition of a charter now leaves 31 universities in the country without a charter out of 50 universities.

A charter is granted to universities that have demonstrated high quality in staff teaching and having research output, extension services, infrastructure development, and good governance among others. 

It is granted by the Head of State and it defines the governance of the university.

A charter is granted to universities that possess a provisional license for a minimum of three years and would have satisfied all the conditions set during the time of licensing.

For any institution to be accredited the regulator (NCHE) must be satisfied after a series of inspections and visitations that the institution concerned has adequate physical and financial resources as well as structures of governance to deliver quality education.

During the press conference, the chairperson board of governors, Varghese Mundamattam, also commended the President and Mrs. Janet Museveni for granting the university a charter. 

"We are grateful to the President and the Minister of Education for granting us a charter," Mundamattam told reporters.

The President signed a charter on November 7 and it was handed to the university chancellor by the NCHE chairperson, Prof Elly Katunguka on Nov 18.

Mundamattam, told journalists that the university administration is not going to copy and duplicate courses but develop its own curriculum.

He said the focus will be to offer courses in artificial intelligence and machine learning/robotics, animation and virtual effects/reality, allied health sciences, data engineering, and data science among others. 

The ISBAT University, vice-chancellor Dr.  KM Mathew informed the audience that the granting of a charter is a great honor to the university and gives it more responsibility to train students from 26 countries worldwide. 

He emphasised that teaching pedagogy is based on research and innovation. 

He pointed out that students would be able to access education resource materials through well designed and artificial intelligence controlled by mobile applications at their own convenience. 

On employability, Omach noted that students stand higher chances of getting employed after completing their studies at the university due to unique courses offered.

"The level of employability is very high," he said. 

The high cost of funding at the university and paying withholding tax are some of the challenges the institution is grappling with among others. 

Currently, the university boasts of nine Ph.D. holders teaching students and is in the process of recruiting more in the next academic semester.