A section of Kyambogo University students in the Department of Lands and Architectural Studies, pursuing a Bachelor of Land Economics have come out with an outcry against a section of research panelists for harboring ulterior motives against their graduation in December this year.
The group of affected students that preferred anonymity claimed that out of a class of 58 Land Economics students, over 30 of them many not appear on the graduation list due to a panel of lecturers who have wrongly graded their research reports with bias thus resulting into over 30 retakes. They further claim that even those 18 students who passed and have been given a leeway to graduate were given flat 50’s in the research project.
“15 of the students were failed during presentation of the research report to the panel and these were out rightly blocked from submitting their research for assessment. The other section submitted their research work and were intentionally failed,” the students claimed.
They identified the biased lecturers on the panel of graders as Mr. Mubiru Moses and Mr. Mwesigye Simon Peter. Further investigation has revealed that the majority of the students who passed were actually supervised by these same two panelists.
“Students who were supervised by other lecturers were failed which rendered the views of their fellows null and void. You will find a scenario where a student who was awarded 70% by their supervisor is given a flat 40% by the panel. What is the use of the supervisors then?” One of the affected students wondered.
The students also brought to our notice that the panelists at first trashed their work and instructed them to redo the entire project (in May this year). The students humbly acknowledged this and went back to their supervisors and started afresh on new research topics. In Mid-October, the students presented the work again and it was for a second time trashed. They now claim that the panelists have informed them in advance that they will not graduate.
“We have tried to reach out to the Head of Department for assistance but all in vain. It is at this point that we request intervention of the outside community on this matter, otherwise, we are oppressed and this may not end well because we have been patient with them,” they tearfully cried out.
This is not the first time that an issue involving the graduation of students at the Department of Lands and Architectural Studies is arising. Last year, a lecturer at the same department was accused by students of threatening to fail a class of 30 students and give all of them retakes.
