Uganda’s leading education hub, Victoria University (VU) has extended classrooms to a fully furnished state of the art Market Plaza and hearty served lunch to over 2000 members of the community.
The University says, shifting some lectures to Market plaza was made to help students observe Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs), complying with Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES, National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), and creating room for more students to join the institution since numbers are increasing on a daily basis.
“Victoria University is building capacity that will see the institution become the leading University in Uganda very soon. We have a lot of students joining and we now have enough space at Market Plaza, about three to four floors which are going to include lecture rooms, lounges and a restaurant for students,” Dr. Lawrence Muganga the University Vice Chancellor said.
He added that since Market Plaza is located within the business community, the University resolved to shift students doing business related studies plus those doing Information and Technology (IT), to acquire more skills while solving problems facing businessmen.
“We are building a university that will transform society; the education we provide is to change society. You see this is a busy place, it is where best businesses are and these people have problems they personally can’t solve. That’s where Victoria University comes in! That’s why we want every student studying business, or IT to come here and solve problems of the business community,” Dr. Muganga added.
Dr. Muganga, assured learners that Victoria University is building capacity that will see the institution become the leading University in Uganda very soon.
“We going to lead the way and others will follow. We are going to transform society, which is our core aim,” Dr. Muganga vowed.
It should be remembered that when Covid-19 broke out in March last year, the lockdown was implemented as one of the measures to control the further spread of the virus and all educational institutions were closed down including higher educational institutions which left thousands of students stranded.
However, Victoria university devised several means of ensuring continuity in learning despite the lockdown and other several challenges that came along with the pandemic.
Victoria University rolled out the V-Class, a state-of-the-art learning management system to cater for students not only in Uganda but across Africa to ensure continuity of learning.
Free data
While as many students are stuck with no data to keep online, Victoria University provided free educational data, learning and assessment have been online and even their students managed to do their exams.
Muganga explains that their V-Class Learning Management System has examination integrity software that helps them assess and supervise students from wherever they are.
“We struck a partnership with Airtel Uganda to get data we provide to all our students for free. This is an offer to all students and lecturers at Victoria University. This was the only way we had to chip in to ensure continuity of learning by supporting parents and those students who pay for themselves. All they have to do is to get the device and we provide the data,” he said
”These unprecedented times call for universities to give back on what they have made over time to students so that they build human capital and avoid dropouts” he added.
Bursaries and tuition reductions
When Victoria University released that the pandemic had hit the country’s economy, at first, they announced full scholarships for five disadvantaged Ugandans who joined this year’s academic intake that began on March 1.
Among the beneficiaries of the scholarships was David Siya, a traffic police officer attached to the Central Police Station, Sylvester Lulenzi a second-hand clothes vendor from Jinja, Moses Ssemitego from Kalungu all won fully paid scholarships. The other two slots were reserved for girls and went to Feddy Akello and Swabrah Mbawomye.
In February 2021, the institution also slashed tuition fees to help ease financial pressure on students and their families sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The 50 percent reduction was made to cater for the new entrants.
In March, the University through the Ruparelia Foundation further announced 1500 scholarships to Ugandan students to further their eductaion.
In September, the University awarded fully funded bursaries to the Uganda Bloggers Association so as to pursue their studies.
The good news has been revealed to the press by the vice Chancellor of the University, Dr. Lawrence Muganga while handing over ten bursaries to the President of Uganda Bloggers Association, Lubega Ismah aka Olaxess Ismah at a colourful occasion. Among the those present has been isma olaxess, his deputy Katto Ashburg and Wisdom Kaye among others.
In October, the University extended at least Ten (10) COVID-19 Tuition-Relief Bursaries to each of the 529 Members of Parliament.
https://twitter.com/VUKampala/status/1453837429446696965?t=8gkFrj5juPrx-F3JDHmkXQ&s=19
Muganga said all these initiatives will be kept in place for the next three years because they do not know when the pandemic will end.
“We shall even give more bursaries where possible for students to come to school in a bid to limit dropouts. I encourage other institutions to move beyond the profits and look at the future,” he said.
