MAKERERE TO REINSTATE MATURE AGE ENTRY SCHEME

ADULTS WHO missed opportunity for University education have been given a second chance to join Makerere University two years from now, the University registrar in charge of Mature Age Entry Scheme, Herbert Bataamye has said.

The scheme was suspended last year after fraud was discovered in its administration. Consequently the Senate, which is the university’s top academic body, set up a committee to review the system.

In a report presented to Senate on October 8th, the committee recommended that the program be reinstated in academic year 2010/2011, with new operational policies suggested to overcome the irregularities, which brought inconsistency previously.

The committee proposed that an examination committee be set to handle the setting and marking of exams, instead of the old method where one person performed this task. The committee noted that formerly, students easily bribed the person in charge to pass exams, even when they had failed.

The team has resolved that examination questions should be set from a question bank, a compilation of past papers, to enable examiners have a variety of questions if the practice of buying exams is to be dealt with.

It was also discovered that there was scam in the collection of application fees previously. Students paid fees without any specifications of the functions. From now on, students shall pay fees for: setting questions, invigilating, typing and printing of exams, marking, and purchase of examination materials.

“It is hereby recommended that the university shall review the application fee regularly so that the scheme is self-financing without profit motive,” the report read.

The board discovered another loophole in the admission process, “the quota on the private scheme was not highlighted in the literatures on mature age,” which resulted in illegal admissions.

The panel recommended that even the government sponsorship quota scheme of 5% be reviewed regularly by the Senate to streamline the admission process.

The scheme which started in 1963, under the University of East Africa, aimed at giving an opportunity to exceptionally well qualified candidates who wished to study for a degree of any of the East African universities, and who did not possess qualifications which satisfied the universities’ entrance requirements.

Makerere University admitted over 1,500 students to the scheme every year, on both government and private sponsorship. But in January 2007, the university set up a committee to probe reports that students with no qualifications had been admitted on the government sponsorship scheme. The Senate therefore decided to suspend the Scheme for two years. Another committee was again set up to review the admission procedure.
END.