Uganda is a country that has made significant  achievements in the education sector. Since independence in 1962, the education sector was buoyant with Makerere University enjoying the prestigious status as a regional hub for excellence in research and teaching, proverbially referred to as “the Harvard of Africa”. This situation continued through the post colonial period until 1970s, when the military junta under Idi Amin Dada brought Makerere and indeed higher education to its knees.

The growth of magendo economy of the 1970s greatly undermined the value of higher education almost relegating it to a meaningless venture. People ridiculed higher education because it was a period of making “quick money” through smuggling and black marketing.

It is the return of sanity after 1986 that has brought a sigh of relief into higher education. Under the NRM neo-liberal economics, the Ugandan education sector has quantitatively expanded with phenomenal increase in educational institutions and enrolment. Since 1980s, there has been an increase from one government university (Makerere), to four government universities having added on: Mbarara University of Science and Technology; Gulu University; and Kyambogo University. There are a host of other tertiary educations including non-university degree awarding institutions such as Uganda Management Institution (UMI).