{UAH} I didnt know that IUIU was a product of Idi Amin's efforts. Wow!

IUIU repositions to meet new demands

Written by JUMA KASADHA

21 September 2015

In the second of our series on universities and their campuses, JUMA KASADHA looks at the Islamic University in Uganda and explains where its rapid expansion is headed.

In August 1974, President Idi Amin arrived in Lahore, Pakistan for the summit of Organisation of Islamic Conference, a meeting uniting mostly Muslim countries. While most heads of state were asking for financial aid from the mostly petroleum generating countries, Amin was aware that few Ugandan Muslims made it past secondary school; so, he insisted on an Islamic University to be based in Uganda.

"He even offered over 100 acres of land in Arua, where he hoped to house the university, the first of its kind in Africa," recalls IUIU lecturer, Imam Idi Kasozi.

Amin's dream only came to fruition in 1988, when the institution was established, through an act of parliament, in Mbale. Former deputy premier, Ally Kirunda Kivejinja, who is now a member of the IUIU university council, says the institution has helped change attitudes to education.

"Muslims never paid much attention to attaining secular education. Our community was as such a marginalized one," he said.

Today, the institution has grown to hold four campuses. These are the one Idi Amin had envisioned in Arua, as well as Kabojja, Kampala and its Mbale-based main campus. The current IUIU rector, Dr Ahmad Kawesa Sengendo, is pleased with the progress.

"The different campuses will continue to offer programmes that help in solving societal problems. These will be geared towards specialized educational services towards community development and being able to avoid duplication of services," Sengendo told The Observer.

IUIU Female Campus Administration block

From two degree programmes at inception, the University has over 70 programmes, ranging from certificates, diplomas, masters and doctoral degrees in different fields of specialization.

"People think, we only teach Islamic and Arabic courses. That is not true, we have Medicine and soon starting engineering programmes as our focus is to be Africa's home to science and technology," Sengendo revealed.

"Each of our different campuses is defined by the unique educational service it offers."

KABOJJA FEMALES' CAMPUS 

Founded in 2008, over 1,000 female students are receiving specialised higher education here. The girls-only campus was started to raise the percentage of females graduating to over 39 per cent of all graduands.

Dr Sengendo believes the Kabojja campus was started to ensure students "receive specialized education; that better positions them to meet the world's challenges."

KAMPALA CAMPUS  

Since its establishment in 2001, IUIU's Kampala campus has been the most popular. Located on Kibuli hill, it has been the hub of recent rapid infrastructural growth, thanks to its 3,000 enrolment. It has also recently increased emphasis on science and technology programmes.

In February this year, this campus signed a memorandum of understanding with Kibuli hospital that would see students of the Habib Medical School take their clinical classes there.

Students outside one of the buildings at IUIU's Mbale campus

Indeed in his speech, read for him by state minister Asuman Kiyingi during the institution's formal opening, President Museveni hoped Habib Medical School would help resolve the shortage of health workers. The medical school is also working with other Islamic-founded health centres.

"In our past two Free Medical Dawa caravans, 250 persons both at Kibuli and Gombe hospitals received hernia treatment. And soon we shall be in Bugiri and Shema districts," Sengendo explained.

More programmes are planned at the Kampala campus, including pharmacy, dentistry and physiotherapy, which will see the campus defined as a hub for sciences.

ARUA CAMPUS

Started in 2007, the Arua campus was initially envisioned to be the headquarters of IUIU. Former president Amin had allocated over 100 acres of land for the campus, but delays in the start of the university prompted land grabbers to seize some of it.

Critics also think the area's identity with Idi Amin prompted the university administration to disregard facilities there.  But Dr Sengendo is emphatic that with the resolution of land wrangles in the area, construction of modern facilities will start soon. He called for patience as funding challenges there are resolved.

"The public needs to realize that IUIU largely depends on students' tuition for infrastructural developments – 92 per cent of university activities are funded from paid tuition and the rest comes from donations," he said.

"As a University we are doing all we can to ensure that Arua campus meets our desired standards."

A fundraising drive is going on to raise money to build a four-storey classroom and administration block in Arua.

"We are transiting from renting premises to now having our own University premises in Arua where we shall offer numerous courses like it is at the Mbale campus," Sengendo emphasized.

The Arua campus, which is home to 360 students, is expected to be a centre for various science programmes associated with petroleum, owing to its proximity to the Albertine region.

MBALE CAMPUS

With the fall of the Amin administration, it became difficult for subsequent administrations to work on starting IUIU in Arua, due to the unstable security situation in the area. Dr Sengendo recalls that in 1988, the matter was resurrected and the government elected to move IUIU to Mbale.

"In November, 1987, the government … and Organization of Islamic Cooperation signed a bilateral agreement following the September Joint Committee in which Nkoma SS was offered as the university premises," he said. "By January 1988, the joint committee had agreed to open the university on February 10 with the [former deputy premier]Abubaker Mayanja as acting rector."

Since then, the campus, now the official home of IUIU, hosts 3,676 students and has distinguished itself as the centre for communal programmes. Dr Sengendo, who is nearing the end of his tenure as rector, has been reflecting on the institution's growth. He says IUIU intends to keep each of the campuses in a loose confederation for the foreseeable future.

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