Abstract

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.