As Senior Six candidates commence writing their endof-cycle examinations today, the Government has eliminated the bureaucracy involved in applying for government slots at public universities and other tertiary institutions.
Under the reforms, Government has eliminated the requirement for signatures and recommendations from local council chairpersons in both the Public Universities Application Form (PUJAB) and the Joint Admissions Board (JAB) for public universities and tertiary institutions.
This will save time and resources that students and parents spend travelling upcountry to secure signatures.
In addition, all applications to public universities and tertiary institutions have been moved online, making it easy for students to apply remotely.
Previously, online applications for universities were reserved for privately sponsored students.
Charles Ssentongo, the deputy academic registrar in charge of undergraduate admissions at Makerere University, said the PUJAB secretariat explained that the reforms are intended to make it easier for applicants.
“With this reform, you don’t need to take the PUJAB forms to the LCI chairperson. On the online portal, the system will ask you to indicate the village,” he said. Once applications under the district quota system have been submitted online, the secretariat will send the eligible students directly to the respective local governments for verification, Ssentongo said.
THE AVAILABLE SLOTS
The Government provides 4,000 scholarships annually for undergraduate programmes in the 10 public universities. The bulk of the scholarships (1,388) go to Makerere University and the balance is shared between the other public universities, which include Kyambogo, Mbarara, Lira, Gulu, Busitema, Muni, Kabale, Soroti and Mountains of the Moon University.
At least 75% of the scholarships are awarded under the merit A’level direct entry scheme. A total of 2,350 students were admitted under this scheme last year. The remaining 25% of the slots are for the district quota system, 64 slots are for the students with special needs and 40 scholarships are for talented sports personalities.
HOW TO APPLY
According to the guidelines issued by Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi, the Makerere University Academic Registrar, one can directly fill in the application available on the online application portal (https:// pujab.mak.ac.ug). Alternatively, one can download the excel sheet application form available at (https://pu.jab.mak.ac.ug), fill it offline and upload it to the system.
Both the portal and the Excel sheet contain pre-populated information to help the applicants select the correct details. Some of the required information includes applicants’ biodata and home district, among others.
The applicant must also indicate information about disabilities (if any), both O’level and A‘level index numbers with the respective years of sitting.
The candidate lists six choices under the national merit choices, four under the district quota choices, four tertiary institutions choices and subject combinations.
WHAT SCHOOLS MUST DO?
Before the commencement of the application exercise, the schools with A’level Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) centre numbers are required to fill and submit to PUJAB the access form available at https://pujab.mak. ac.ug to allow them use the online Application Portal. A fees of sh52,000 is applicable per applicant.
The guidelines emphasize that, “there will be no hard copy/manual application forms given to applicants and that, re-applicants, who did their Advanced Level in 2023 or 2022, can apply through their schools or can use the system directly.”
Ssentongo explained that the school managers have all been trained, both virtually and physically, in the respective regions on how to use the system and that the deadline for submission and acknowledgment of the forms is next month on December 31.
WHAT TEACHERS SAY
Describing it as a good reform, Patrick Kaboyo, a teacher and executive director of the Education Advocacy Network, noted that some districts have Internet challenges and might affect the application process.
A headteacher of a government-aided secondary school who preferred anonymity, welcomed the system as it will eliminate extortion that has been happening at local governments, where students would be required to pay a lot to secure the recommendations.
UACE EXAMS STATISTICS
Today, a total of 142,009 A’level candidates start writing their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) in 2,634 centres across the country, up from last year’s 110,569 candidates, representing an increase 22.15%. Of the total candidature, 80,041 (56.4%) are male and 61,968 (43.6%) are female.
Data from UNEB also indicates that 35,661 candidates (25.1%), are under the government-sponsored Universal Post-Level Education and Training (UPOLET), while 74.8% are privately sponsored.
UPOLET is a universal education programme that covers the A’level. This year, the number of UPOLET candidates increased by 10, 982 from 24, 679 last year.
Jenifer Kalule Musamba, the UNEB principal public relations officer, warned that the law will be invoked to firmly deal with invigilators and scouts who negligently allow malpractice and any persons contemplating engaging in examination cheating.
