Having had different anomalies ever since the covid 19 pandemic hit the entire globe and different businesses having to shut down, a lot of unexpected changes have taken place and these have affected every entity, academic institutions inclusive.
The latest development coming in is the postponement of the 71st graduation ceremony at the Ivory tower, Makerere University. The ceremony which usually takes place in January under the normal calendar year had to be rescheduled to March after academic institutions were opened for finalists.
The graduation ceremony that will only be accessed by PhD and master’s graduands physically, has now been extended to a further date from 18th March 2021 to 7th May 2021.
According to the Deputy Vice Chancellor for academics, Prof. Umar Kakumba the postponement was based on the request from the University ceremonies committee that asked for more time to smoothly and efficiently prepare for the ceremony.
The professor was cited as saying to the media that the University Ceremonies Committee had faced challenges and delays in the procurement of gowns.
The issue of gown procurement is one that has marred and tainted the University’s administration over time with the problem always arising during every graduation ceremony especially for the past three years.
Last year’s 70th grad was the most problematic for both the graduands and the university administration as a week prior to the grad ceremony, the university had only procured 7000 gowns compared to the 13000 gowns that were needed.
It’s said that all these anomalies arose from internal disagreements with some officials blocking the timely procurement for unknown reasons. The professor also added that the issue of research for some students was also key on the extension as some had not yet completed their theses.
