The Social Services Committee of Parliament has rejected the university and other tertiary institutions bill 2011 for failing to address issues adequately.
Workers MP Sam Lyomoki, who was the committee before it was split this month to create Education and Health committees respectively, told URN that the bill did not failed to bring on board all the necessary adjustments required to improve the functioning of public universities.
Before the split, the committee was overseeing both education and health sectors.
In a report that is yet to be presented in parliament, the committee observes that the scenarios that the bill attempts to cure including the vice chancellor stalemate at Makerere University are being addressed under the existing legal framework. The committee recommends that until the bill captures all the situations in other universities and not just Makerere, the proposed law will not be passed.
The bill wanted to reform the method of identifying and recruiting the vice chancellors, deans and heads of department of public universities. It also sought to place an open and competitive recruitment process based on merit. The bill if passed would lead to the abolition of the elective recruitment process based on traditional and institutional politics.
The Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2011 stipulates that the vice chancellor shall be appointed by the chancellor on recommendation of the university council from among the meritorious candidates in consultation with the Minister. The bill also proposes that the appointment shall be thorough, open and competitive process which shall include the adverts in the print and electronic media and interviews based on merit.
In April, Makerere University lecturers had blamed Education Minister Jessica Alupo for causing a crisis at the institution when she asked the institution to start the search for the Vice Chancellor. Francis Xavier Lubanga, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education, at the time argued that the crisis in Makerere was being created by the factional and institutional politics. This is why the amendments are necessary to ensure that the leadership of universities is not held hostage by the elective recruitment process that is based on politics.
The university lecturers led by Dr. Tanga Odoi, the academic staff chairperson, had also opposed the involvement of the minister in the appointment of the vice chancellors at the universities. They argued that the minister has a huge workload and getting involved in the process will only cause unnecessary delays.
The new bill seeks to amend the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act which was enacted in 2001. It was amended in 2003 and later in 2006 to fill the gaps identified at the time.
