(This article was first published in the Sunday Vision on October 4, 2021)
By Martin Kitubi
Only 243 of the 1,952 A’level schools that had candidates in last year’s examinations have had students admitted to Makerere University on government scholarships.
This implies that 1,709 secondary schools did not have a single candidate who qualified to join the premier university on national merit.
The 2021/2022 merit admissions list released by Makerere University on Friday indicates that 1,507 students were admitted to the university. Of these, 1,242 students will join the main campus while 265 will study at the constituent college in Nakawa, the Makerere University Business School (MUBS).
Schools That Dominated
St Mary’s SS Kitende sent the highest number of students on merit followed by Uganda Martyrs Secondary School, Namugongo.
Kitende had a total of 127 admitted to Makerere (107 at the main campus and 20 at MUBS) followed by Uganda Martyrs Namugongo with 96 (85 at the main campus and 11 at MUBS).
The other schools with large admissions on government scholarships include Mengo SS and King’s College’ Budo, each with 45, Mt St Mary’s Namagunga and Gombe Secondary School each with 35 students, St Mary’s College Kisubi 29, Gayaza High School 28 and Seeta High School 27.
While public schools dominated admissions to Makerere main campus, the majority of students admitted to MUBS are from private schools.
MUBS is the leading training institution for business-related programmes.
Makerere
Makerere takes the lion’s share of the 4,000 government scholarships. Charles Ssentongo, the Makerere deputy academic registrar for undergraduate admissions, explained that Uganda’s oldest university is offered about 2,500 slots.
He said the number of programmes considered for sponsorship also reduced from 77 to 65, following the scrapping of certain programmes. On the number of schools that have students shortlisted at Makerere, he said, is due to the fact the other public universities have slots.
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