DP Wants Better Funding for Makerere

The Democratic Party has asked government to allocate more funds to Makerere University to enable the institution to facilitate its academic programmes.

Addressing Journalists in Kampala August 11, DP Kampala legal advisor Mr John Paul Kakande said it is unfortunate for the university to grapple with limited resources to run its affairs yet government is lavishly spending colossal sums of money on what he described as "bogus ventures".

"Makerere used to be a pride for Uganda and Africa as a whole but the institution is today a centre of shame. Since this NRM government came into power the university administration has been crying out for funds yet billion of shillings are lavishly spent on useless ventures," Kakande said.

He said the party has information that university has borrowed Shs.4.5billion to run its activities.

According to the university publicist, Mr Gilbert Kadilo, government gives Shs27billion to Makerere annually, but the university administration says it needs Shs 136billion to effectively run its programmes.

DP's criticism comes days after the media carried an eye-brow raising story about the university's inability to run its programmes due to lack of funds.

Mr Kakande blamed the falling academic standards at Makerere on poor funding from government. "No doubt government is to blame for this whole mess because ever since NRM came into power standards at Makerere have been deteriorating steadily and now people can simply buy degrees from streets," he said.

The University Council recently increased the tuition fees for private students and also set tighter deadlines for the payment of tuition and other fees to help the university raise more funds to remain afloat. Makerere is saddled by a heavy debt. By the close of 2007 its debt had accumulated to about Shs64billion.

Makerere University recently enhanced features on its transcripts in a bid to reduce forgery. The moved followed press reports that officials at Makerere University had certified fake degree transcripts that had been bought at Shs250,000 from a criminal racket operating on Nasser Road in Kampala.

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