Samantha Mwesigye transferred from King’s College London, completed all four years of her LLB at UCU, and was set to graduate in July 2026 — until the university suddenly claimed she had unfinished first-year coursework. The High Court has ruled it was all illegal.
A High Court ruling delivered on June 12, 2026 has ordered Uganda Christian University to pay UGX 100,000,000 in general damages — plus 25% annual interest until payment in full — to a law student whose graduation was abruptly blocked on the eve of completion, after the university reversed years of its own decisions about her academic standing.
The case, Samantha Mwesigye v Uganda Christian University (Miscellaneous Cause No. HCT-00-CV-MC-0104-2026), was heard before Hon. Justice Bernard Namanya in the High Court’s Civil Division.
Mwesigye completed her first year of study towards a Bachelor of Laws degree at King’s College London in the United Kingdom. On August 30, 2022, UCU admitted her to continue the same degree programme on the basis of her transferred credits from King’s. Based on that admission, UCU permitted her to proceed directly to Semester II of Year I.
She then progressed normally — Year I to Year IV — completing the full four-year LLB programme with an anticipated graduation date of July 2026.
That is when everything changed.
Upon completing four years of study, UCU informed Mwesigye that she was required to undertake four additional course units which she allegedly had not completed in Semester I of Year I: Introduction to the Bible, Legal Writing, Fundamentals of Criminal Law, and Constitutional History.
The university also demanded that she furnish a certificate of equivalence from the National Council for Higher Education in respect of the credits she had earned at King’s College London — years after those same credits had already been accepted, and after she had been permitted to progress through the entire programme on the strength of them.
In effect, a student who had been treated as compliant for four years was, on the eve of graduation, told she was not.
Justice Namanya’s ruling did not mince words about what UCU had done. The court found that the university:
Treated Mwesigye as a student in good standing and awaiting graduation, only to later reverse course and assert that she had outstanding academic obligations from Year I, Semester I.
Permitted her to progress through the entire LLB programme from Year I to Year IV, only to reverse course on the eve of graduation by asserting she still had outstanding obligations from the very first semester of her first year.
Failed to state in writing — and remained vague about — the precise nature of her alleged outstanding obligations, including whether the issue was the NCHE equivalence certificate, the four course units, or both.
Failed to observe her right to a fair hearing.
In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 40 of the Judicature Act, Cap. 16, the court made the following declarations and orders:
(a) UCU’s failure to transfer the credits Mwesigye obtained in her first year of study toward the Bachelor of Laws at King’s College London was tainted by irrationality and procedural impropriety.
(b) That failure also amounted to a breach of Mwesigye’s legitimate expectation — the legal principle that a public body cannot suddenly reverse a position it has consistently held and relied upon by the affected party for years.
(c) UCU shall pay Mwesigye general damages of UGX 100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Shillings).
(d) UCU shall pay interest on that sum at 25% per annum from the date of judgment until payment in full.
(e) UCU shall pay the costs of the application.
The ruling was delivered by email and via ECCMIS under the Judicature (Electronic Filing, Service and Virtual Proceedings) Rules, 2025, and signed by Hon. Justice Bernard Namanya on June 12, 2026.
This is not simply a story about one student’s graduation being delayed. It is a legal precedent about how universities treat students who transfer in with credits from other institutions — a growing population as more Ugandan students study abroad for a year or two before transferring home, often for financial or family reasons.
The “legitimate expectation” doctrine at the heart of this ruling means that universities cannot accept a student’s transferred credits, allow that student to build four years of academic life on top of that acceptance — registering for subsequent courses, paying subsequent tuition, planning a graduation date — and then, at the final hour, declare that the original acceptance was somehow incomplete.
For any student currently studying at a Ugandan university on the basis of transferred credits — whether from the UK, another African country, or elsewhere — this ruling establishes that an institution’s initial acceptance decision carries legal weight. It cannot be quietly undone years later without due process, clear written communication, and a fair hearing.
UGX 100,000,000 in damages. 25% annual interest from the date of judgment. Legal costs. For a single administrative reversal that could have been resolved through a written explanation and a fair process years earlier, the financial consequence to UCU is now substantial — and growing every year the payment is delayed.
For Samantha Mwesigye, the ruling vindicates four years of academic work that a single late decision nearly erased. Whether her July 2026 graduation now proceeds as originally anticipated is the next chapter of this story.
