Makerere University has announced plans to double its postgraduate student population from 3,874 to 7,744 over the next five years, while maintaining — not cutting — its current undergraduate enrollment.
The announcement was made by Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe while unveiling the university’s five-year Strategic Plan (2025/2026–2029/2030), flanked by senior academic staff. The plan, he said, is designed to widen access to quality education and align with Uganda’s National Development Plan (NDP IV), which targets tenfold national growth.
For students and parents who had been anxious about reports of reduced intake, the announcement brings relief. Makerere had previously signalled plans to trim undergraduate admissions from 14,000 to 12,000 annually to create room for postgraduate expansion. That decision has now been shelved.
“Our strategy is to increase the number of graduate students to at least 30 percent by 2030,” Prof Nawangwe said. “Previously, we had almost 50,000 students, which sparked public outcry that students were studying through rumours because they could not fit in lecture rooms. We gradually cut our numbers to about 35,000.”
He added that the University Council had since given a different direction. “The Council is saying it is okay — we can keep the numbers and make efforts to increase graduate numbers and achieve what we wanted to achieve.”
The Vice Chancellor was emphatic about why growing the postgraduate pipeline is not just a university ambition but a national necessity.
“We all know that research is what has liberated many countries. We must train as many PhDs and Masters students as possible to move our country out of poverty. If they are going to be self-sponsored, we are not going to achieve that,” he warned, making a pointed call for government scholarships and loan schemes to support postgraduate students.
His concern is backed by a troubling statistic — only 10 percent of PhD students at Makerere complete their programmes on time, largely due to financial challenges. A PhD programme at the university costs anywhere between Shs20 million and Shs200 million, with science programmes commanding significantly higher fees than humanities.On a more encouraging note, Prof Julius Kikooma, the Director of Undergraduate Training, revealed that 31 percent of graduates at the 76th graduation ceremony were postgraduate students — a figure the university expects to grow to 50 percent by 2030. Students who drop out due to financial constraints are also allowed to return once they secure funding.
Exams Will No Longer Be Everything
In another significant shift, Prof Nawangwe announced changes to how students are assessed. Under the university’s new competence-based curriculum, continuous assessment will now carry 60 percent of a student’s final mark, with examinations accounting for the remaining 40 percent.
This marks a major departure from the traditional exam-heavy model that has long defined university education in Uganda.
“There have been questions about our preparedness to take on students who have undertaken the new competence-based curriculum in high school,” the Vice Chancellor acknowledged. “I would like to reassure the public that the university is not only ready but has always operated on a competence approach.”
Taken together, the announcements paint a picture of a Makerere University in transition — one that is betting heavily on research, postgraduate training, and a more holistic approach to student assessment to secure its relevance in the next decade.
Whether the government responds to Prof Nawangwe’s call for scholarships and loan schemes will likely determine how ambitious these targets can realistically become.
For now, students can breathe easy. The seats are not being taken away. The university is simply working on adding more scholars to fill them.
