Makerere releases nearly 12,000 transcripts at public fair

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Makerere University has released at least 11,801 transcripts in the three-week public fair that has been taking place at Freedom Square, URN has learnt.

The University declared a two-week window to allow (former) students who had not claimed their transcripts and certificates to do so.

However, after two weeks, the window was extended to a nearly week later, and it ended on Friday.

Speaking to Uganda Radio Network -URN, Tom Otim, the Deputy Academic Registrar in charge of Exams and Transcripts, who was also managing the fair, said they by the end of the fair they had managed to release 11,801 transcripts, making the fair a success.

He explained that due to the increasing number of people who stormed the area to pick up their documents each day, the University was forced to extend the fair which was supposed to take two weeks for at least another week.

“We have done very well; the response has been very good since we opened, and that is why we extended the dates, we saw the continued high response, it forced us to extend for few days, we would have stopped on Tuesday but the students were many,” he said.

The University decided to open a two-week window to allow students pick their transcripts after it was saddled with more than 100,000 uncollected transcripts and certificates of students who graduated in recent years.

The University also eased the criteria for obtaining academic papers by creating a one-stop center for the entire process which is taking place at Freedom Square.

On top of that, the University shortened the criteria for former students to pick up their academic documents to merely clearing with the finance department and the University Library.

Previously, for one to get their transcript, they were required to seek clearance from several offices including the dean of students, guild president, college registrar, college bursar, university library, university hospital, Makerere police post, games union, their hall of residence and Bursar.

Otim said after the fair, those who have to pick their transcripts will now have to follow the traditional way of processing their documents.

“We shall continue with our routine process of giving out transcripts,” he said. “Students will now be going to their respective colleges as it was before. Those with problems will be forwarded to us and after solving them we shall send them back to their colleges.”

Previously, Prof Nawangwe, the Vice-Chancellor Barnabas Nawangwe told URN that the University has not been able to issue transcripts on the spot because they suffered a setback when it switched from the Academic Information Management System (AIMS) to the Academic Management Information System (ACMIS), which was introduced by the government.

He claimed that all student data had to be transferred from the old system to the new one yet the new system didn’t recognize some of the data.

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URN