The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has launched an online portal that will have all the necessary information about Uganda’s institutions of higher learning. The online portal cost Government over $300,000.
The launch of the Integrated Management Information System was presided over by the State Minister for Higher Education, John Chrysostom Muyingo at the NCHE headquarters in Ntinda.
“There was a need for a dynamic response to the continuous demand and ensure education facilities respond to growth needs but a mismatch would lead to inferior education that we would not want to associate with,” Muyingo said.
He noted that the new system will provide timely data to enable proper planning by government.
“The Integrated Management Information System will enforce compliance in quality in areas of program accreditation, institutional staff establishment and the student capacities to align them with our national human resource development goals,” he said.
He also noted that the new system will save resources and time for the public who would need to check for some information from the National Council for Higher Education.
“People will not need to come all the way to the council in case they want to make any consultation. They will just have to login into the system and find out what they want.”
Minister Muyingo said the Education Ministry strongly supports such adoption of such ICT tools that he said signal a landmark and timely shift in her education regulations.
“Over for the past decade, the network for higher education has grown by 60% whereas 77%of the population comprises of the youth below 30 years of age. It is therefore important to provide them with the required tools,” Muyingo said.
According to Prof Mary Okwakol, the National Council for Higher Education Executive Director, the new system will enable government have timely data on institutions of higher learning and allow for proper planning.
“Every year, NCHE collects information to review the state of higher education in the country and it helps policy formulation and planning but if data is not available it makes it difficult the country to be guided in terms higher education,” Prof.Okwakol said.
“The new system will now improve the council’s internal business processes and workflows but also for those of institutions of higher learning. A stakeholders’ interface was included in the system to facilitate debt collection, monitoring and all accreditation services,” she said.
She urged institutions of higher learning to develop the necessary ICT capabilities and constantly update their data to ensure a smooth running of the new system.
According to officials from the National Council for Higher Education, those logged into the new system will be able to access the list of accredited institutions of higher learning, accredited courses and students’ final results and this will help reduce on forgery.