KAMPALA — Oyam North MP Dr. Eunice Apio Otuko secured parliamentary attention to the failure of the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) to implement earlier directives after the Speaker ordered the responsible Minister to present an action-taken report within two weeks.
The directive followed Otuko’s appeal for accountability over Parliament’s May 2023 resolutions on cleaning up the council’s accreditation database and correcting the status of valid university programmes.
While presenting her concerns, the legislator cited the case of a Makerere University graduate who reportedly lost a funded international Master’s scholarship in Poland because the undergraduate qualification was missing from NCHE’s live accreditation records.
She pressed Parliament to establish why the council had failed to implement the earlier resolutions and sought urgent government intervention to protect affected graduates.
In response, the government acknowledged the administrative error and confirmed that Makerere University’s Food Science and Technology programme had been accredited in 2010 and had continued operating since then.
The government representative also outlined efforts by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address the individual case, while the Ministry of Education and Sports was coordinating with Makerere University to correct the online records.
Following the exchange, the Speaker instructed the Clerk to extract Parliament’s 2023 resolution and forward it to the responsible Minister.
The Speaker subsequently gave the Minister two weeks to return to the House with an action-taken report, saying the period was sufficient to establish whether Parliament’s earlier resolutions had been implemented.
The directive provided a clear accountability timeline for the government to explain the outstanding accreditation concerns raised by Otuko.
The development marked a significant parliamentary step towards addressing the administrative gaps that had threatened the academic prospects of Ugandan graduates.
