Busoga varsity not about to die

Splashes billions on new facility in expansion drive

Busoga graduands at a recent graduation

Busoga University has sent a strong message that it is not about to go under as many people had rumoured.

The administration of Busoga University has revealed that it recently acquired the buildings of Bugiri High School at Ushs2.6bn where they intend to host their faculty of medicine.

The University management says it wants to extend its spheres east wards but also reduce congestion at the main campus. Bugiri High School was previously owned by one Dr. Basalirwa Muyinda, the chairman of Bugiri District Service Commission.

The acquisition of a new magnificent facility comes in the wake of public outcry that the university was on the verge of collapse due to poor management and misappropriation of resources.

The outcry came to light in March this year when most of the staff staged a sit-down strike accusing the administrators of failure to pay their salaries for more than three months, coupled with laying off of most members of the teaching staff.

However, while addressing the all district chairmen from the ten districts that make up Busoga sub region about the state of the University at the New Bugiri campus on Sunday afternoon, the University Vice Chancellor David Lameck Kibikyo refuted all accusations of poor management and administration.

“Orchestrators of such rumours are people who have been fired from the campus because they don’t measure up to the required standards or failed to deliver to their expectations and instead of admitting their failures, they allege that the institution is doing poorly. How would we buy this multi-billion complex for our Bugiri campus if we were not doing  well?”  Kibokyo rhetorically asked.

Kibikyo however admitted to a crisis in March when the staff went amok but added the action was a counter-reaction to their good administration and therefore could not deter them from pursuing the right cause for the plight of students.

“We inherited a catastrophe that needed boldness to be handled because our predecessors had employed mostly bachelors’ degree holders as lectures yet surely according to the set standards and requisites by the National council for higher education, they could not even measure to the level of tutorial assistants, we definitely had to encourage them first go back and upgrade. Such people instead of understanding the position just waged war” he noted.

He cited the faculty of Information Technology (IT) that had about 30 lectures but only 2 of them hold a masters degree in IT yet the university was also offering masters in the same.

“This implies that bachelor holders were lecturing and supervising students at masters which is not only illegal but also criminal and absurd, we had to relinquish all those bellow masters degree” Kibikyo said.

He also admitted that prior to the crisis, the university was offering unaccredited courses which have now been accredited adding the university is now in the pipeline of acquiring a charter by the end of this year.

At the end of the meeting, all district chairmen offered to partner with the university in promoting and persuading students to join it.

According to Titus Kisambira, Jinja district chairman and also chairman of all  chairmen from Busoga sub region, the leadership in Busoga was worried and concerned about the rumors that were circulating about their indigenous institution prompting them to seek the attention of the vice chancellor.

“We shall now actively and regularly monitor all the activities of this university to ensure it delivers quality services to the community, we shall in our respective districts find ways of partnership in order to widen our involvement because education is the most viable investment for the future generation” he said.

“We still want the administration to vigorously work towards improving the image of our institution by exposing it out to the public, that way government will continue realizing its importance and offering more grants like they recently bailed us out with a 1.2 billion grant,” Patrick Kayemba, Iganga district chairman added.

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