LDC wants first class degrees from some Universities probed
The MPs had asked the Centre to explain why some students weren’t admitted to the Centre, despite paying for the course.
The Law Development Centre(LDC) has asked Law Council to investigate suspicious first degrees issued by some Universities in Uganda.
This, according to LDC is because after receiving abnormally high numbers of students with high grades, but during training, these clog LDC’s system due to the failure to pass numerous subjects.
The revelation was made by Annet Karungi, Head Bar Course at Law Development Centre while appearing before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, where the officials had appeared to defend the 2024/25 national budget framework paper.
The MPs had asked the Centre to explain why some students weren’t admitted to the Centre, despite paying for the course.
“I think we have observed that the pattern in the last academic years they are really not necessarily the best, and many of them (students) actually end up clogging the system, repeating various subjects. So it is something we have shared with Law Council and we are hopeful as a regulator, they will take it up and address it at the time of regulation and accreditation of the law Schools,” said Karungi.
Karungi denied allegations that LDC declined to admit some students, saying there is no student who paid for the current academic year for the current intake of 2023/24 and wasn’t admitted.
“But rather, during the current intake, LDC received more than 3000 applicants and because of the limited facilities, all these students couldn’t be taken on,” she explained.
She revealed that in the process of admission, they realized that something was coming up, but she said Law Council will handle it.
“You find that applicants from certain Universities, almost the entire class have first class or upper second class, so we have to devise a fair method of admission and we decided to take on 60% from each University. So what we did, ranking from the first to 60% , we took on the top most from each University, the rest were admitted and given offer letters for next academic year, which is really guaranteed,” added Karungi.
The Law Development Centre is an educational institution in Uganda for higher learning that offers various legal courses ranging from one month to one year.
In the early 2000s, the LDC was plagued by a high failure rate among students, as high as 90 percent in some years. The LDC, together with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Uganda Law Society, have designed changes that include a pre-admission written examination for students, continuing education requirements for LDC lecturers, and instruction in teaching methods for all academic staff.
