Ugandan University Admissions

Admission to Higher Education
The higher education admissions process takes place in two states. First, all students who wish to be considered for admission under government sponsorship to public universities fill out the Public Universities Joint Admissions Board (PUJAB) application form and rank their top 6 choices of degree programs at public universities and 4 choices of diploma programs at other public tertiary institutions.

The minimum qualification for entry into Makerere and other public universities is 2 principal passes on the UACE. However, to earn a government scholarship students need to be outstanding. Most students will sit for either three or four subjects in their area of study (arts or sciences). Their scores on the various subjects are then weighted based on the requirement of individual programs within faculties, and the top-scoring students are admitted.



The cut-off point for admission into a particular program is determined by the lowest score of the last person accepted into that program. For example, if the Faculty of Law can take only 50 government-sponsored students, it ranks the applicants according to their weighted scores, and takes the top 50.



The weighted score of the 50th student becomes the cut-off point for Law for that year. Very popular programs like Medicine, Dentistry, and Architecture have high cutoff points, while Law, Mass Communication, and Social Work and Social Administration have lower cut-offs. Affirmative action policies, which add additional 1.5-4 points to a student’s scores, are in place for women, applicants with disabilities, talented athletes, and the children of Makerere employees1.



Following the PUJAB admissions stage, there is a second stage, this time for private admission. Whereas the Private Entry Scheme (PES) was started at Makerere, all public universities now have similar programs. Students who do not get a government scholarship are invited to put in applications under the PES.



Some students who get government scholarships for a program that was not their first choice reapply under PES. The private admission selection process is similar to the PUJAB process, and public universities do the admissions jointly. At Makerere, where programs are offered during the day and evenings, the higher performing students are put in the day programs, where they study together with the publicly-sponsored students.