One of Africa’s most prestigious universities, Makerere University, Uganda has banned students and parents from bringing cell phones and cameras to its week-long graduation ceremony starting Monday, February 13th, at its main campus situated within the country’s capital, Kampala.
In a statement issued by Patrick Mangeni, chairperson of the Ceremonies Committee, over eight items including mobile phones and cameras were barred from the venue. These include canned food and drinks, bottled drinks, dangerous weapons (such as guns), chemicals, alcohol, cigarettes, back bags, lighters, glasses, and knives.
The management did not include the reason(s) for the ban in the statement.
The chairman also said that each graduand is expected to come to the venue fully dressed in their graduation gown and be accompanied by only two guests.
A total of 13,221 graduands are expected to graduate during the university’s graduation ceremony, which ends on Friday 17th, 2023. Of the total graduating population, 52 per cent are female while 48 per cent are male.
According to the official programme seen by Edugist, the graduation ceremony will start with students from the colleges of Natural Sciences, Health Sciences as well as School of Law on Monday.
On Tuesday, students from the Colleges of Education and External Studies, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences will graduate; while students from the colleges of Business and Management Sciences, Computing and Information Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources, and Bio-Security will graduate on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Makerere University Business School will graduate their students in various disciplines and the graduation will close on Friday with students from colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering, Design, Arts and Technology.
Present at the opening ceremony was the wife of Ugandan President, Janet Kataha Museveni, who doubles as the Minister of Education and Sports in the country.
