Makerere University ease access to academic transcripts

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Makerere University has shortened the criteria for former students to pick up their academic documents. For many years, Makerere University students have been complaining about the lengthy procedure to obtain their academic transcripts after graduation, which forced hundreds of students to abandon their transcripts and certificates.

The University is stuck with more than 100,000 uncollected transcripts and certificates of students who graduated in recent years. Before students access their transcripts, they are 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, and their hall of residence.

However, according to students, many of these offices are unreliable since they are often under lock and key, and when open, they are overrun with other students, making it much more difficult to get the necessary approvals in one day. As a result, the University has organized a two-week fare for students who had not claimed their transcripts and certificates to pick them up.

Opening the fare at the Freedom Square Tuesday, Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Professor Barnabas Nawangwe told journalists that they have simplified the process of picking up the transcripts to merely clearing with the finance department and the University library. He explains that they decided to stick with the two offices to ensure that the students do not escape with University arrears as well as books.

At freedom square, at least each of the ten colleges has deployed a team that will handle its former students. These include the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), the College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS), the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), among others

Previously, students would occasionally pick their testimonials, a document that acts as an immediate copy of one’s results but must have the signature of the Dean of the College, which is easy to obtain compared to the transcripts.

When asked why it takes so long for the University to print student’s transcripts, Nawangwe explained that the University 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.

Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi, the Makerere University Academic Registrar also told URN that many students neglect to register their bio-data after enrolling at the University, making it difficult to print their transcript at the end of their academic journey.

Aggrey Etukata, a graduate of 2020 from the College of Business and Management sciences is one of the students who were frustrated with the lengthy process of getting a transcript and opted for a testimonial. He told URN that the move by the university to ease the process will help many of them pick their transcripts in just a day.

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