CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

338
6) Grant all universities discounted or subsidised access to the Internet backbone. The
government should support universities (both public and private) as the Research and
Education Network for Uganda (RENU) to access the national Internet backbone with
adequate bandwidth to transmit educational content for the online distance learning
programmes and for research. This is a critical and fundamental element for the ability
of Uganda or any African country to develop its education sector and to provide for
online courses that allow for cross-border exports of education services.
7) Broaden the scope of CEMAS to cover the higher education sector. In the medium
term, the government should take deliberate measures to broaden the scope of the
Computerised Education Management and Accounting System (CEMAS) to start
collecting statistics from the entire higher education sector, including from the private
providers.
8) Develop synergies between CEMAS and RENU. Over the medium- to long-term, the
government should consider consolidating CEMAS and RENU into a common platform,
instead of developing them as separate and competing platforms. This would solve the
problem of accurate, real-time information on the higher education sector and provide
affordable, reliable high-speed Internet connectivity to deliver online content and
research. The partnership of CEMAS and RENU with Google will provide a good
foundation for an all-inclusive collaboration between the providers, government, and a
credible world-class multinational which, when harnessed, would guarantee successful
execution.
9) Put in place effective regulation and quality assurance controls, particularly for
private providers. The exponential growth of the higher education sector, particularly
the private providers in the region, as nominally demonstrated by the 30-fold growth of
the IUCEA’s membership from 3 to 90 member institutions, has triggered concern with
regard to quality assurance. This regional expansion in private provision of higher
education has set a two-fold challenge of maintaining the standards in public
universities and guaranteeing the standards of the private providers. Given that all
accredited providers are members of the IUCEA, the responsibility for quality assurance
is as much a task of the NCHE and regulators in each of the partner states as it is the
IUCEA’s.
10) Allow NCHE oversight over remedial and other pre-entry procedures. With the trend
of Uganda increasingly drawing its international students from farther afield in the
Horn of Africa, DRC, and West Africa, and away from its close neighbours in the EAC,
there will be a growing demand for and proliferation of bridging programmes and preentry
examinations, particularly for applicants without minimum requirements. The
responsibility to accredit and administer these pre-entry processes should be made part
of the NCHE’s broadened mandate, as is the case with similar arrangements such as the
Test of English as a Foreign Language, the Graduate Management Admission Test, and
others in the United States and UK.
11) Pursue mutual recognition of accreditation of higher education institutions and
programmes in the EAC. This should be done as a first step towards developing a
‘common higher education area’. Mutual recognition agreements will help in removing
the regulatory requirement that universities and other institutions of higher education
that operate across borders have to apply for fresh accreditation and licenses whenever