No more years at Makerere

THE university senate formulated a regulation in a meeting held in July 14th to guide students on withdrawal from studies and to forewarn those who overstay their stipulated years at the institution.
In a letter circulated by the Academic registrar, Mr. Amos Olal-Odur, a student can apply to his/her respective Board of Studies for permission to withdraw from studies at any time of the semester. The reasons for withdrawal from studies should be given in the letter of application.
“Permission to withdraw shall be granted by the Faculty/School/Institute Board only on compassionate grounds or in cases of illness or financial constraints, serious social or domestic difficulties or exceptional professional commitment which can be demonstrated to have adversely affected the candidate.”
Resumption of studies will also require the student to follow the same procedure of application. However, he or she “shall indicate that the circumstances that made him/her withdraw can no longer affect his/her studies.”
The student will only be allowed Permission for withdrawal a maximum of two withdrawals on an Academic Programme and each withdrawal shall not exceed a period of one academic year.
The regulations also affect the students who overstay their academic studies at the university. Students will no longer be allowed to overstay their welcome unnecessarily as this creates a backlog and congestion at the university which already has more than thirty thousand students to manage.
“A student who has overstayed on an Academic Programme by more than two years beyond the period of candidature stipulated in the Programme shall be discontinued from his/her studies at the University,” states the letter.
Joshua Masinde