The report on the Evening and Allowances Review committee of Makerere University has recommended scrapping courses with less than 200 students.
Some of the courses which have reduced in student numbers according to Dr Vincent Ssembatya, the director for Quality Assurance at Makerere, include Bachelor of Electrical engineering and Civil Engineering.
Dr. Ssembatya attributes the drop in the numbers of students to changes in dollar rates plus the deteriorating equipment especially in the science section. Other colleges such as Computing and College of Business deliberately decreased on intakes due to insufficient space and equipment.
Due to the need for the university to compensate the teaching and non-teaching staff involved in evening teaching, the Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe appointed a committee to carry out a fact finding mission and identify the most appropriate method of remunerating staff with work load beyond working hours.
The committee noted that a number of evening programmes had less than 100 students and in some cases less than 50. This implied that it was not practical for the university to keep them as evening courses because of the extra cost they incurred.
