Muni University to graduate over140 students, install Vice Chancellor

By Andrew Cohen Amvesi

Arua – Muni University is set to graduate a total of 143 students from seven different academic programs on Saturday April 6, 2024.

During the function, Prof. Simon Anguma Katrini will also be installed as the second Vice Chancellor of the institution, replacing the Late Prof. Christine Dranzua who died on June 28, 2022.

Prof. Anguma, formerly the deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of academics has been serving in the capacity of the acting Vice Chancellor after Dranzoa’s death until recently when he was confirmed for the post.

He will now officially be installed as the second Vice Chancellor of Muni University during the 6th graduation ceremony to be held at the University campus in Arua city on 6th April 2024.

Speaking to journalists from the University Council Hall on Tuesday, Prof. Anguma said of the 143 students set to graduate, seven are in the first class category.

“We are having the graduands for 2023 actually graduating this year and they are 143 in number; 99 are male 44 are female. With this 143, we are going to graduate on Saturday, we would have channeled out a total of 782 graduates into the job market; 578 will be male and 204 will be female. So, the females are really representing 26.1 per cent of the total graduate number this University would have channeled out,” Katrini remarked.

He noted that the graduands are coming from seven different academic programs which include; Bachelor of Information Systems (BIS), Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, Bachelor of Science with Education, Bachelor of Nursing Science, Bachelor of Business Administration and Management.

Anguma said the other two are graduate programs which include; Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management and Master of Education in Educational Planning and Management.

According to Anguma, this is the first time Muni University is graduating students at Masters level and the program happens to be Masters of Education in Educational Planning and Management.

“And under this program, we are going to graduate 11 students; six of them are female and five are male. These people are our first born as far as the masters program is concerned. We really want to congratulate them upon this achievement and they have opened the gate for the University for many things to happen,” Anguma said.

Relatedly, Anguma observed that they have a total of seven students whose cumulative grade point average (CGPA) score is above 4.4 which constitutes 5 percent of the total number of students graduating thus putting them in the First-Class category.

He said three of the seven students offered Bachelors of Nursing Science, another three offered Bachelors of Science in Information Technology and one who actually scored the highest CGPA offered Bachelors of Business Administration and Management (BBM).

“So, Mugisha William who offered BBM scored the highest CGPA of 4.65. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Mugisha and your colleagues who scored CGPA in that cohort and I wish you all the best in your careers,” Anguma stated.

Mugisha, a journalist in Arua city, works for Voice of Life FM as the Station Manager, a position he was elevated to after years of serving as the stations News Editor and English News Anchor.

Stella Amandru Wawa, the University Dean of Students joined Prof. Anguma in complementing Mugisha for the well deserving award, describing him as one of those highly disciplined students at the Campus.

She said in preparation for the graduation are already in high gears, adding that for the first time, they are going to use their own students to do performances – cultural dance including other entertainment that will take place on the day.

In his remarks, Emmanuel Natal Banya, the Muni University Secretary said within the few years they have graduated students, their graduates have never floated in the job market.

“In any case, some institutions actually come looking for our graduates. Most of our graduates who graduate in the Faculty of Education, when we send them out for school practice, most of the schools don’t want to let them come back and indeed immediately they complete, they are absorbed into the labour market. Graduates of the Faculty of Nursing go through vigorous training but after completing from Muni University, they are always in the market and that is already a vote of confidence about the quality of our graduates from here,” Banya said.

Muni University is the sixth Public University established in Uganda under Statutory Instrument number 31 of 2013. It became operational on November 4, 2014 when the first cohort of 87 students were received under the Faculty of Technoscience.

The number of students at Muni University has gradually been growing over the years to a total of 1,396 students as of 2024.