Cavendish University Uganda is celebrating the re-opening of on-campus learning after the economy was declared fully open by the president on January 10^th  .Under their theme this year, “Surpassing pre-pandemic performance”, the university has resumed with gusto to meet their mandate of delivering the best programs and services not only to the students but to the community.

During the scholarship award ceremony held at their campus on Gaba road, the Vice chancellor Prof. John Mugisha said that the university is highly technology and this is the reason they did not shut down in March 2020 when education faced a standstill due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

“We already had a learning platform in place as early as 2017 so we quickly transited their students from contact to online study using it,” he said. “Cavendish became the first university to be permitted by the national council for higher education to teach online and to conduct online/ technology enabled exams which is modern for current requirements at a high and international level,” he added.

Dr.Olive Sabiiti,  the university’s Deputy Vice Chancellor and in-charge of academic affairs revealed that the university has 3 intakes annually and each has scholarships awarded to enable people access and befit from their excellent academic model and market leadership in technology enabled education.

“The different categories of scholarships are mostly academic merit scholarships given to students who have gained at least   12 points at ‘A’ level, have 3 principle passes and 5 passes at ‘O’ level. When the candidate has those they then do an aptitude test, strategically designed to mimic the realities of the real world of study, work and attitude,” she explained.

Sabiiti said that the scholarships are highly competitive citing that out of 150 applications only 25 students were taken. “The scholarships are fully funded, and most applicants scored very good grades scored above 16 points. We have awarded 35 scholarships, 25 of which are in the academic merit category,” she added.

However, the scholarship base at Cavendish University Uganda is wide and it includes many other categories like: The Benjamin Mkapa award, a scholarship that is given to a Tanzanian student nominated by the Benjamin Mkapa foundation.  Sabiiti says that the award was created when the late former president of Tanzania was still the university’s chancellor and even after his demise it still stands.

There is a scholarship or the former Chief of Defence forces of South Sudan, a former student of the university too and the Rebecca kadaga scholarship. Another category is a scholarship of the university advisory council. “The council is chaired by Hon. Justice Lillan Tibatemwa, of the supreme court of Uganda. It sits other prominent people like Dr. Sam Orochi Orach, Hon .Onapito Emoloid, Hajat Aisha Lubega, the deputy chairperson of the electoral commission and many others. They all nominate beneficiaries and today we have a number from that category,” Sabiiti further said.

This s semester, the university has widened its scholarship categories to include post graduate students studying for Master of Business Administration and Master of trading and Business Management.

“They come in to support as tutorial assistants to improve their student experience. The scholarship students are trained to become peer tutors and help their colleagues achieve and there is the option of virtual peer tutoring as well,” Sabiiti adds.

 For the lucky winners of scholarships, all is not rosy ahead of them because they must maintain their spectacular academic performance. Sabiiti says if a student drops below a cumulative GPA of 3.6 then they lose the scholarship. “This is not to punish the student but to keep them focused ensuring that they maintain excellent academic performance!” she explains.

At Cavendish University Uganda they are particular about the programs they bring on in order to add value to the community. This year they have introduced Education Management, a 2 year master progamme and it is for those that want to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in managing educational institutions.  Sabiiti says, “We use industry practitioners as part of the facilitators because we at Cavendish have excelled in the way we manage out education institution.”

Prof. Mugisha encouraged the students to participate in co-curricular activities tailored by the university to help them build networks, develop interpersonal skills and build character. He said at the end of the year they will introduce  an oath of commitment to ethical leadership which the candidates will swear upon graduation.