Anthony Mugagga Muwagga
Increasingly, university education in Uganda is becoming very popular. Before 1992, discussing university education in Uganda and for most of Sub Saharan Africa was not very difficult because there were few universities. The liberalization and introduction of the private sponsoring scheme in public universities, emergence of the denominational, for-profit and community private universities have all made discussing university education problematic. Though the Uganda government white paper on education 1992, gives the basic principles which must guide all levels of education in Uganda, the lack of a clear and uniform philosophy informing and guiding the different universities creates a plethora of challenges to the debate of the philosophy of education behind the different universities in Uganda. This paper using a descriptive case study research design tries to identify the underlying philosophical underpinning behind the different universities in Uganda. These include: public, religious or denominational, the for-profit and cultural oriented universities. The paper concludes that different universities in Uganda draw their philosophy of education from their founding body’s rationale for providing university education. It is also concludes that there seem to be no unifying philosophical underpinning for the entire university system in Uganda. It can also be concluded that, unlike public, for-profit and cultural or community universities, denominational universities seem have a more refined and specific philosophy of education.
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