Arua, (UG):- Arua-based Muni University, a government-funded varsity is on the verge of collapse after passing out only 143 graduates at its sixth graduation ceremony.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony held on Saturday, April 06, at its main campus in Arua, the minister of state for Primary education, Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu had no kind words for the University authorities for letting only 143 students graduate from seven programs.
“…when I see in this graduation ceremony, we have all come to witness a total of 143 graduands. Mr Chancellor, I walk with my head down, when I see the proportion of academic staff and I see a ratio of students graduating today. As a former academic staff, I do not think that we are maximizing the resources that are at hand properly”, Dr Moriku said publicly slamming Chancellor, Henry Luke Orombi.
“I’m not going to mince my words as a daughter of the soil. We cried for this University, we lamented for this university and we blamed government left and right for this university. Today, we are in the sixth graduation ceremony and witnessing only 100 graduating!”
Dr Moriku said she earlier attended a graduation ceremony at Gulu University which was established earlier than Muni but it had more than 1,000 students graduating.
“This is something that we must reflect upon. The university is here, look at the infrastructure, look at the investment the government has put here but we are crying that our government is not providing the investment and yet we are just passing out a handful of 100 as if it’s coming from a nursery school”, Dr Moriku said.
The university’s second vice chancellor, Prof Simon Anguma Katrini was installed to replace the founding vice chancellor, Prof Christine Dranzoa who died in June 2022.
But in a media engagement prior to the graduation, Prof Anguma had said the number of graduands had been growing since their first graduation ceremony held in 2018. According to him, because the university was majorly offering techno science courses, few students, especially from the region were enrolling.
He added the number of graduates would grow the following year since students from 30 programmes who were admitted two years ago would be graduating.
Muni University Chancellor, and former Archbishop of Church of Uganda, Luke Henry Orombi who presided over the graduation ceremony urged the graduates to be more ambitious in their academic pursuits.
The 143 students graduated from seven academic programs which include; Bachelor of Information Systems (BIS), Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, Bachelor of Science with Education, Bachelor of Nursing Science, Bachelor of Business Administration and Management.
The other two graduate programs include; Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management and Master of Education in Educational Planning and Management.
At least 11 students were for the first time awarded with Masters of Education in Educational Planning and Management in the history of the West Nile University. Mugisha William emerged as the overall best student with a CGPA of 4.65.
Muni University started in 2013 and currently has about 110 members of academic staff.
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