UCU Guild Succumbs to Pressure after Minister’s Resignation, Starts Working on Students’ Issues

The students’ Guild of Uganda Christian University (UCU) Kampala Campus has come up with resolutions to grievances that culminated into the resignation of one of the Guild leaders last week.

Ainebyoona Albert, formerly serving as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and constitutional Affairs resigned on grounds that the Guild president paid little or no attention to students’ pressing needs.

Following his resignation, the Guild President subsequently started working on the issues and some have been addressed such as the library space, Wi-Fi, computer lab etc.

According to the Minister of Education Nasser Mukwaya, a team last week led by the Guild President, His Excellency Masembe Owen Micheal engaged with the university administration on various students concerns at Kampala campus and most of the concerns that were raised were as follows;

1. Higher pay in regards to others fees paid in comparison with the services received for the Advent 2022.
2. Students who transferred from evening to day still have a challenge of missing marks and never get to see their results whenever they are released both on Alpha and on the spreadsheets that are released
3. Nonfunctional Computers in the Computer Lab.
4. There is no space at the campus. The alternative remedy has been tents, however, there are other questions that have been answered. What do we do when it is raining? What do we do when it is too hot because the tents generate a lot of heat There are no toilets in the new campus? The roads and pathways are too muddy when it rains which makes it a-bit hard to access the Premises.
5. Low Wi-Fi Band width. Very slow and unreliable.
6. Limited space in the library.
7. Missing marks.

Resultantly, the recommendations below were made to the university administration during the various engagements;

• In regards to issue 1, we asked the university to reduce in the tuition fees for this semester. This is because the services we are getting are not commensurate with the amount of money we pay for tuition.
• In regards to issue 2, we engaged the dean of law school who and the law faculty administrator who in turn told us that the issue was with the MIS system. We have engaged the MIS team and we are yet to receive feedback on the same.
• In regards to issue 3, we are glad to inform you that the issue of non functional computers in the lab was handled. The problem before was with the electricity. Whenever, the computers would be put in, the sachet breaker would go off hence switching the power off. This issue was rectified by the relevant authorities and there was a class that was handled from there last week.
• In regards to issue 4, the tents have been set up fully. We were informed that they have been built in the ground and no scenes are expected to happen again. Those classes studying online are most likely to go physical within the week.
• The issue of Wi-Fi has also been worked on. The internet was boasted and extended to various areas around campus where it was inaccessible before.
• In regards to the library, more space has been created and allocated for the readers. We have engaged the relevant parties to have more books supplied to Kampala campus and we await feedback from them.
• In regards to missing marks, various students have solved their challenges with the faculty in regards to marks. We engaged the law faculty administrator, she informed us that she’s going to roll out a timetable of how classes will visit her office to confirm the missing marks.

With the above, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel with hankering that positive change will soon be witnessed.

The Guild leadership’s reaction has thus portrayed Ainebyoona’s resignation as the sacrificial lamb towards the targeted response.