By Howard Mwesigwa
Through its Academic Registrar, Mr. Everest Turyahikayo, the Law Development Centre (LDC) issued a communique earlier this week calling for Applications for the academic year 2021/22. In that communique, it was intimated that the LDC courses would be conducted at the three campuses in Kampala, Mbarara and Lira through distance, online, and/or physical learning.
The Academic Registrar LDC, further indicated that the Post Graduate Bar Course is slated for commencement on 27th September, 2021 at the Kampala, Lira and Mbarara campuses. Conversely, that the Diploma in Law Course, both the Day and Evening Programmes would commence at the Kampala campus on 20th September, 2021. The Weekend Programme on the other hand was indicated to start on 18th September, 2021 at the Kampala, Lira and Mbarara campuses. It was ultimately indicated that the Diploma in Human Rights Course (Evening Programme) would commence on 10th January 2022 at all the campuses.
In a rather categorical and unequivocal tenor, the Academic Registrar LDC, emphatically noted that the current students completing their LLB Programme in Uganda ( that is to say, finalists doing their Bachelor of Laws), should have their names submitted by the respective faculty Deans not later than10th September, 2021 to confirm that they have successfully completed the LLB Programme. Furthermore, that any applicant whose faculty/law school does not submit the required confirmation
in time shall not be admitted.
This news was immediately received with inexplicable consternation and profound trepidation among the finalists at the Mak School of Law, owing to the fact that by the time LDC made the call for applications and accordingly communicated the deadline, the possibility of having completed their LLB by that time was/is conspicuously blurred. To further contextualize this, it should be noted that the finalists at the Makerere School of Law had at the time of the second lockdown, just concluded their Semester One examinations and have a whole semester (Semester II) to go, to complete their LLB.
This is further exacerbated by the fact that Makerere University is yet to explore the possibility of conducting online assessments. The much detested possibility of having to ‘sit home’ for a whole year, while awaiting the next intake, seems more apparent than ever before, for these finalists. We’ll be following these developments closely and relaying them to you, as and when they unfold.
