Finalists Face Graduation Delays As Surgery, Pathology And Reproduction Units Sit Untaught Following Mass Lecturer Departures At CoVABs
Over 127 students at Makerere University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVABs) have gone for more than a month without lectures — and despite petitioning the university administration at least six times, they are yet to receive a single response.
The crisis, which has most severely affected students in years three, four, and five, follows the simultaneous departure of multiple lecturers through retirement, contract non-renewal, study leave, and resignation — none of whom have been replaced by the university.
For final year students whose graduation timelines are now directly threatened, the silence from administration is not merely frustrating. It is academically catastrophic.
The staffing collapse at CoVABs has been building across several categories of departure. A significant number of lecturers who handled core practical and clinical units were on contract — and when those contracts expired, they were simply not renewed. Others took early retirement. Some left on study leave of unknown duration. Others departed the university entirely. In every case, no replacements were appointed.
The result is a college where critical course units across multiple departments have had no lecturer coverage since the semester began.
Among those whose contracts were not renewed are Dr. Patrick Mawadri for Surgery, Mr. Majid Kiseka, a laboratory technician for Pathology, Dr. Peter Waiswa for Anatomy, and Dr. Gerald Nizeyimana for Reproduction.
Those who have retired include Prof. Charles Waiswa from the Medicine department, Dr. Nassuna Namusoke for Reproduction, Prof. Jesca Nakavuma Lukanga for Immunology, Associate Prof. Samuel Okello for Veterinary Physiology, and Dr. Ssengoba in Anatomy.
Dr. S.G. Okech is on study leave of unknown duration. Dr. Dickson Tayebwa and Dr. Paul Ssajjakambwe have left the university altogether.
The breadth of departures across different departments means that the staffing crisis has not been confined to one area — it has spread across the entire college.
The course units that have gone untaught since the semester began read like the core practical curriculum of a veterinary medicine programme — precisely the units that cannot be delivered through textbooks or self-study alone.
For Year Five finalists, Surgery Clinics Rotations and Clinical Rotations for Surgery have been untouched. For Year Four students, Herd Health Reproduction and Surgery Lab Work for Pathology remain undelivered. Year Three students have had no coverage of Reproduction. Additional affected units across the college include Reproductive Herd Health and Udder Management, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and Veterinary Orthopedics and Lameness.
These are not peripheral electives. They are core clinical units in a programme that requires students to demonstrate hands-on competence before they can qualify as veterinary practitioners. The absence of these units does not just create academic gaps — it creates professional ones.
The scale of the crisis is quantifiable. A total of 127 students have been directly affected — 54 finalists in Year Five, 43 students in Year Four, and 30 students in Year Three.
In a letter dated March 30, addressed to Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe and other relevant university authorities, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine finalists formally requested urgent intervention to recruit lecturers to handle surgery clinics rotation and ambulatory units. That letter has not been addressed.
Final year student Mr. Steven Kizza Ssemmanobe described the situation with controlled frustration. “Most lecturers were on contract, but they got expired, and their contracts have neither been renewed, nor has the university appointed new lecturers. The course units that haven’t been handled since we began include Surgery, Pathology, and Reproduction,” he said.
He confirmed that students had petitioned the college administration more than six times — including a formal written petition signed by class representatives — without receiving any feedback whatsoever.
“We have petitioned the university many times. We did this about six times, and we even wrote to them, but no feedback,” he said.
For a finalist, the stakes are particularly acute. “Being a finalist, lack of lectures — especially rotational clinical surgery — threatens our assessment and graduation timelines,” Ssemmanobe said.
What makes this crisis particularly difficult to accept is that its cause and its solution are both straightforward. Lecturers left. Nobody replaced them. Students are suffering the consequences of an administrative failure that was entirely foreseeable and entirely preventable.
Contract expiry dates are known in advance. Retirement dates are known in advance. Study leave approvals are processed by the university itself. At every stage, the university had the information it needed to plan for replacements — and at every stage, it apparently chose not to.
The students of CoVABs are not asking for anything extraordinary. They are asking to be taught the curriculum they enrolled and paid for, by the lecturers their university is responsible for providing. After more than a month without lectures and six unanswered petitions, that request remains outstanding.
Makerere University has not publicly responded to the situation at CoVABs at the time of publication. Campusbee has reached out to the university for comment and will publish their response when received.
