Nkumba University in financial squeeze – Needs 5b to skill students

In a bid to produce ideal graduates who are fit for the job market, Nkumba University has embarked on a program aimed at skilling students but short of funds.

The program is being faced with a great challenge of inadequate funds that has hindered the procurement of enough teaching equipment.

“We need laboratories, computers and other teaching materials for hands-on lessons, which we cannot solely fund,” Prof. Hannington Ssengendo, the Vice Chancellor, Nkumba University says.

Prof. Ssengendo says there is need for government’s funding to foster acquisition of the necessary equipment to ensure quality and effective learning at private institutions.

“Since we are a private university, we mainly depend on students’ fees, the government only funds public universities and extends no funding to private universities yet all institutions teach students for the good of the nation”, he says.

He notes that if the university can secure about 5 billion Uganda shillings, procurement of teaching equipment to skill students would be easy.

He says they started the “skilling program” in 2012 to better equip students with practical skills needed for innovation and job creation.

He is confident that with such skills, university graduates can overcome the unemployment challenges which have demoralized the dreams of many.

In Uganda, about 400,000 graduates are passed out annually by higher institutions of learning; all eyeing less than 30,000 jobs created by government, a trend that the professor says can be solved through change of mind-set of students and equipping students with the right skills.

ALSO READ: Profile of Prof. Hannington Sengendo, Vice Chancellor Nkumba University

Nkumba University launches new campus in Kampala