By Spy Uganda
Kampala: Ever since Victoria University started In Uganda, the country has experienced enormous transformations especially digital innovations, and hands-on skills that the current job market requires to get things moving.
But the sharp brains behind all that you hear about and see at Victoria University is Vice Chancellor Prof. Lawrence Muganga, an academic giant Uganda is blessed with.
Prof. Muganga landed at Victoria University a few years back and took a whole case study about the challenges in Uganda’s education sector and among them was unemployment among youths who in most cases possess the qualifications but lack the practical skills.
After analysing the challenges, Dr Muganga embarked on a journey to do massive research and came up with various solutions including coming up with digital innovations, hands-on skills, and scholarships to economically strained Ugandans among others to change the narrative.
According to Muganga, one of the biggest causes of youth unemployment was the poor education formula in Uganda and Africa at large that only focuses on seeing students acquire degrees with no employable skills and end on the streets at the end of their academic journey.
”Surely with this digital world who needs your papers, companies are now looking for competence, what can you do for them not how you got a first-class degree from University XYZ, trust me that’s nothing, am telling Ugandans to wake up and look for Universities that teach skills and competence, not first-class papers,” Prof.Muganga said in one of the interviews with our reporter.
On top of the current digital innovations, Prof.Muganga also introduced what he termed as the ‘Competence Based Education Formula (CBE)’ which he believes will solve the youth unemployment in the country and of course start with graduates from Victoria University.
”With this new education formula, students will go to the website we’re about to launch and see a questionnaire asking them their interests, natural abilities, passion, and future prospects among others and it’s this information that will guide our lecturers to make these students what they want to be through competency-based teaching,” Muganga clarified about the new formula which was adopted by Victoria University administration and implemented in the September intake, 2022 academic year.
How Does the Competence-Based-Education Formula Work?
Prof. Muganga stressed that under the CBE formula, a lecturer aims at building students’ competence in that specific area of capability and will make sure, they’re fine-tuned with not only theories but with employable hands-on skills.
”When we discover that you can do better in this but not in that, our lecturer helps to build and strengthen your competence based on your ability and by the time you foot out of our lecturer rooms, you will be that fittest graduate who may choose to even start own job and employ others but in case you don’t, we believe the skills we shall have quipped you with, will see you giving a bloody nose to your competitors during the job search. They’ve papers, you have skills but also the smartest papers that even show your competence level. Prof. Muganga noted.
According to Prof. Muganga, in the first year-semester two, students go through Career Employability Program (CEP) which is under Career Employable Hub (CEH) and equips students with the soft skills required in the job market including critical thinking, problem-solving, public speaking, professional writing, teamwork, digital literacy, leadership, professional attitude, work ethic, career management, and intercultural fluency… feel free to add on…among others.
”Most of the graduates today, don’t know how to write business emails, winning application letters, CVs, memos, how to use phones at work, how to use computers, so we intend to teach them all this through CEH and by the way Frank, did you know at Victoria University all students have laptops? Those who can’t manage to buy we assist them through our laptop loan scheme. So by the time our students graduate, they are already computer wizards and ready to scoop jobs requiring computer skills,” Prof. Muganga said adding that after mastering the above skills, students are awarded certificates.
Back to how Victoria University will apply the CBE formula, in the second year, students go through another program called Work Integrated Learning (WIL Program).
Work Integrated Learning is a form of experiential education that integrates a student’s academic studies with quality experiences within a workplace or practice setting. WIL experiences include an engaged partnership with at least: an academic institution, a host organization/company and a student.
But that’s not all, Prof. Muganga also revealed that the university has secured partnerships with over 160 major companies in Uganda to help co-educate/train their students during internships with most securing permanent jobs from their internship placements courtesy of the hands-on skills offered at the University further noting that under WIL program, they hired professionals from Canada who designed a guide to help supervisors know how to handle students and which activities they are expected to do.
Victoria University has a couple of other faculties among them including;
- Faculty of Business and Management
- Faculty of Science and Technology
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Petroleum and Energy Studies
The university also has a couple of undergraduate courses among them including;
Faculty of Business and Management
- Bachelor of Business Administration – 3 years
- Bachelor of Banking and Finance – 3 years
- Bachelor of Tourism and Hospitality Management – 3 years
- Bachelor of International Business – 3 years
- Bachelor of Science in Oil and Gas Accounting – 3 years
- Diploma in Procurement and Logistics – 2 years
- Diploma in Banking and Finance – 2 years
- Diploma in Business Administration – 2 years
- Diploma in Tourism and Hospitality – 2 years
Faculty of Science and Technology
- Bachelor of Computer Science – 3 years
- Bachelor of Business in Information Systems – 3 years
- Bachelor of Information Technology – 3 years
- Diploma in Business Information Systems – 2 years
- Diploma in Information Technology – 2 years
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Bachelor of Public Administration and Management – 3 years
- Bachelor of Social Work and Social Administration – 3 years
- Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies – 3 years
- Bachelor of Human Resource Management – 3 years
- Bachelor of International Relations and Diplomatic Studies – 3 years
- Foundation Programme
- Higher Education Certificate in Biological Science
Faculty of Health of Sciences
- Bachelor of Science in Public Health – Full Time: 4 years
- Bachelor of Environmental Health – 3 years
- Bachelor of Nursing Science – 4 years
- Bachelor of Midwifery Science – 3 years
- Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and Dietetics – 4 years.
Postgraduate Programmes
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Master of Arts in Public Administration and Management (MA-PAM).
Here Is Everything Else You Need To Know About Victoria University.
Victoria University is one of the leading universities in Uganda and stands out as a centre for academic excellence. It offers a fresh and intellectually stimulating environment that nurtures critical thinkers.
The University was opened in August 2013 and has the capacity, facilities and determination to revitalize higher education in Uganda and in the region.
The University is committed to playing a leading role in bringing and developing high-quality education, and student-centred learning opportunities based on standards of excellence that are unique, innovative and difficult to match.
Accredited by the National Council for Higher Education with a wide range of nationalities and was recently granted a charter.
VictoriaUniversity is located in the heart of Kampala City convenient for learners from different parts of the world.
Victoria University is part of the Ruparelia Group of Companies, which has a strong presence in the education sector in Uganda and has under its portfolio, Kampala Parents School and Delhi Public School International.
