CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

There are factors which have favored Uganda as a destination for international students. They
include a long-established tradition of foreign enrolment in Uganda’s universities and
institutions, comparatively low tuition fees, the low cost of living in Uganda relative to other
countries in the region, and Uganda’s attractive university entry requirements. There is a strong
relationship between the patterns of foreign student enrolments and university rankings, which
favor Ugandan universities, given that Ugandan universities, especially Makerere University,
have consistently featured prominently in the global universities ranking reports. In addition,
Uganda has benefitted from enhanced cross-border student mobility driven by the EAC
integration process.
Although the absolute number of foreign students enrolled in universities and other tertiary
institutions of learning in Uganda has increased over the years, in relative terms the share of
foreign students as a portion of the total number of students studying in Uganda has declined
slightly since 2006. The study highlights policy issues underpinning the difficulties facing
Ugandan universities in the effort to expand foreign enrolment. Key among these are limited
budget allocation, the existing trend of declining foreign student enrolment, slow uptake for
distance delivery of higher education, inadequate presence of Ugandan university campuses
abroad, and the lack of reliable statistics.
To effectively exploit her export potential for higher education in the region, Uganda will need
to introduce concrete government support policies for higher education, namely:
(a) A deliberate government support policy for exporting higher education and providing tax
relief to private universities is needed.
(b) To promote distance online higher education programmes, all universities should be granted
discounted access to the Internet backbone.
(c) To improve the collection of higher education data, broaden the scope of the Computerised
Education Management and Accounting System (CEMAS) to cover the entire higher education
sector. CEMAS and the Research Education Network Uganda (RENU) should be consolidated
into a common platform, instead of being developed as separate and competing platforms.
(d) Focus on quality assurance through effective regulation and quality assurance controls,
especially for private providers, and broaden NCHE oversight of remedial and other pre-entry
procedures.
(e) Proactively support an EAC ‘Common Higher Education Area’, pursue mutual recognition
of accreditation of higher education institutions and programmes in the EAC, and support the
proposed Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS) and the EAC Qualifications
Framework.
(f) Revamp the Vice Chancellor’s Forum as a proactive advocacy platform for higher education
providers to engage with government on key policy issues affecting the sector.
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