Makerere University is set to approve a proposal to lessen admission of undergraduate students by considerable number.
The initiative is poised to kickstart with the forthcoming August intake as reported by Daily Monitor.
Through a phased manner, the university intends to reduce the total intake of incoming students by 5000 whilst increasing the intake for graduate programmes.
Makerere Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe argued that the move is line with the institution’s strategy of transforming to a research based university.
Notably, the numbers to be slashed are of undergraduate students pursuing diplomas or first degrees in humanities while slots for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses will remain untouched.
“There are programmes which we can’t reduce because the numbers are still low, especially STEM. But in the humanities, we are definitely going to start reducing,” the VC told Daily Monitor.
“The reduction will be done until we get the optimum number. If we reach the total enrolment of undergraduate students at 20,000, then we shall stop there and see [where] the number of graduates has reached.”
Prof Nawangwe revealed that the university will use cut-off points as the elimination the criteria by admitting the finest scorers.
The proposal has already met sharp criticism from students, alumni and the general public with many viewing it as biased and illogical.
It is estimated that Makerere University has a population of around 36000 students. On average, 13,000 undergraduate students are admitted annually.
Students enrolling under Humanities programmes are often higher than the STEM counterparts.
