By Mulengera Reporters
During the ongoing IASIA Annual Conference in Lisbon Portugal (specifically Monday 22nd July), something of great significance for Uganda’s higher education happened. And this is what it was: The leadership of IASIA (globally uniting all schools and institutes of public administration) and that of ICAPA announced Uganda’s UMI had satisfied the rigorous requirements to have its Masters of Public Administration (MPA) degree program accredited to international standards.
Operating under the auspices of the UN, much-respected ICAPA in full is International Commission on Accreditation of Public Administration Education & Training. At hand in Lisbon to receive the accolades was the UMI Director General Dr. James Nkata who led a delegation participating in the IASIA Conference.
Making UMI’s MPA program now comparable or as good as that done at Harvard or even the London School of Economics, the ICAPA accreditation is awarded following a list of 8 indicators or standards issued by the UN through it’s Public Administration & Development Management Department.
Some of the areas considered include how efficiently a given training institution combines academia, practice & community services. It also considers reviews or praise by academic peers elsewhere and social inclusiveness. Yet that isn’t all. Does the institution seeking accreditation have a purposive & relevant curriculum? Are the necessary human and financial resources available to facilitate the MPA? To what extent is there balancing between collaboration and academic competence?
The vetting and assessment process can be very rigorous always involving hearing from the market that consumes or employs the academic institution’s products, the students, the faculty staff involved and the alumni who previously graduated through the same program whose ICAPA accreditation is being sought.
In the UMI’s case, the process (unusually lasting such a very short time) began last with Prof Gerald Kagambirwe Karyeija writing to ICAPA seeking accreditation for their MPA degree program. Remarkably within just a year UMI was found by the vetting committee to be eligible for the accreditation.
Karyeija heads the School of Management Sciences which at UMI is the one offering the much-sought after MPA program. The MPA’s mother department is that of Political & Administrative Sciences which Karyeija directly supervises. On getting Karyeija’s communication, ICAPA Brussels-based secretariat sent self-assessment forms which UMI officials filled and sent back. Basing on the answers therein it will be decided whether to move to the next stage or not. It will all depend how appropriate the assessors consider the applying institute depending on the answers provided on the assessment forms.
Consequently, the ICAPA site visit team was constituted (compromising of very eminent and seasoned public administrators) and sent on fact finding mission that lasted 16-20th March 2019. While here, the team interacted with relevant stakeholders on top of inspecting all the UMI facilities in place. Members included Rachel Emas, Polya Katsamunska, Allan Rosenbaum and our own John Mitala the head public service and secretary to cabinet (yes that humble old man; he is that eminent).
They subsequently outed their report highly recommending UMI as suitable while highlighting (mostly staffing) areas requiring improvement. This assessment exercise heavily involves the United Nations whose standards are what the site visit team bases on to score an institution’s suitability for the accreditation.
The report observed that despite commencing in 2010, the MPA had turned out very popular to the extent that from the pioneering 36 students, enrolment had grown to 75 students. It has since been accredited twice by NCHE, a very reputable regulator of higher education in Uganda. The report commends UMI for running such a “reputable and high-quality program” preparing participants for entry into public service and also for doctoral studies.
The ICAPA team was also fascinated by the fact that staff on the MPA program often had their views, advice and guidance sought by holders of public office in the GoU through the IMI-coordinated Uganda Development Management Forum. Notwithstanding areas of potential improvement, the program was also found to be solidly packaged in terms of the research component and the weekend modules through which it is delivered to the learners.
The conclusion was: “Based on the review of the self-assessment report, as well as the observations of the site visit team, it is recommended that the Master’s in Public Administration degree program (option A) of the School of Management Sciences of the UMI be granted full accreditation for a maximum time of six years.” Its on this recommendation that the IASIA and ICAPA leadership based to publicly hand over to UMI Dr. James Nkata the much-coveted ICAPA certificate of accreditation in Lisbon on Monday.
THE IMPLICATIONS
But does this mean anything for Uganda beyond the academia and the pride that comes with it? The answer is yes and here is why. Beyond mere prestige (which itself is a very important thing for PR and all that), the accreditation makes the quality of UMI training programs comparable to what many of our wealthy parents pay for while sending their children to Harvard and London School of Economics just to access the best public administration schools and institutes.
Harvard being more prestigious and the emotion impact coming with it all, mere UMI accreditation many not stop such wealthy Ugandan parents from sending their children there. But the accreditation (which is so rare to the extent not more than 10 institutions globally have ever attained it) will no doubt attract many wealthy students from Africa, Asia and beyond. This is so because not everybody that has the money gets chance to be enrolled at Harvard or London School of Economics.
And as such students (including those Harvard rejects from North America or even Europe) will be flocking to UMI to get education/training of comparable standards, lots of forex will be coming in. This will be good for both UMI and the country.
By the way in Africa its only UMI now having such accreditation besides a few other eminent American Universities like Rutgers State University of New Jersey whose School of Public Affairs & Administration qualified a few years ago. The other equally highly rated institution having ICAPA accreditation is the University of Externalo de Colombia’s Government & International Relations Program. Our google search for other equally ICAPA-accredited institutions didn’t yield much result. 
Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda presides over a recent UMI graduation ceremony where he represented the PresidentIn Africa, the American University in Cairo Egypt once got accredited but lost the conditional ICAPA accreditation subsequently after failing to keep the high standards of academic excellence its officials had promised. Even in the UMI’s case any slight decline in the standards or failure to keep improving can six years later result into the accreditation being revoked.
While handing over the accreditation certificate during the Lisbon conference, IASIA President Dr Blanor Scelza congratulated UMI for being the first country in Eastern Africa region to accomplish such a mega academic achievement and urged other institutions of higher learning to be inspired and emulate UMI.
“This is affirmation of global quality and you have now earned a right to seat at the same table with the best schools of management in the world among which is Rutgers University with whom you have programs being accredited today. Congratulations UMI and specifically your School of Management Sciences,” he said as he moved to take photos with Dr. Nkata and the rest of the delegation.
Speaking to Mulengera News about the ICAPA milestone, UMI Communications Manager Peter Kibazo corroborated what a naturally very excited Dr. Nkata had posted earlier by saying: “This is part of the UMI mission to achieve her world class status. Very few Schools of Public Administration are internationally-accredited. This is a first among many others for the UMI programs. The Institute is very proud of attainment of this certification against the rigorous scrutiny of her program by ICAPA.”
Nkata separately told Mulengera News the ICAPA recognition is additional motivation for them to work even harder in order not to betray the high expectations the more than 3,000 delegates at the ongoing IASIA annual conference in Lisbon now have in Uganda and its Management Institute. The 3,000 are mostly leaders of UMI similar management institutes in the different countries across the globe. (For all the relevant information regarding this newly accredited MPA program, reach UMI directly on 0702999210 or 0752576845).
