Browsing by Author "Kibuuka, Enock"

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    A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Regional Balance in the Financing of Higher Education in Uganda: The Uganda Students’ Higher Education Financing Policy Perspective
    (East African Journal of Education Studies, 2022) Kibuuka, Enock
    In Uganda, there have been historically glaring disparities in access to higher education, where the majority of the students that join universities come from good secondary schools, which are mostly afforded by rich individuals. This has created a situation of ‘inherited merit’, where students from particular backgrounds and regions dominate access to HE. Because children of the poor who cannot afford to go to good schools hardly access higher education, whilst many of the students who join higher education institutions (HEIs) fail to complete their study programmes due to the failure to meet the costs involved. The Ministry of Education and Sports 2012 introduced the Uganda Students’ Higher Education Financing Policy to address the problem of inequitable access to higher education. Thus, the third objective of the policy aims to ensure ‘regional balance’ in the provision of HE through awarding of student loans. Because there are strong intra-connections between policy and language, the language used in discourse plays a critical role in the way the term Regional balance was constructed in the policy. This paper performs a Foucauldian discourse analysis perspective of the policy with the overall aim of showing signs of power imbalance through the use of language and revealing the discourses used by elite actors to retain power and sustain existing regional imbalance in access to HE in Uganda. By approaching such regional balance as political discourse rather than a pure act of equity and social justice, the paper shows how power is implicated within the guise of regional balance. As such the paper contributes to a discursive understanding of regional balance in the provision of HE in Uganda, to an appreciation of the role of power relations embedded in policy rhetoric as a form of exemplary theatrical government, and to the politics of regional balance. The findings revealed that the term ‘regional balance’ is used as a sugar-coated camouflage to sustain and perpetuate the hegemony of the Western part of the country. The paper concludes by exposing the power relations embedded within the policy and highlights gaps between the rhetoric and practice of the policy in which people from the Western part of Uganda have benefited more from this financing policy at the expense of other students from other regions of the country
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    Equitable access, Retention and Successful Completion of Undergraduate Students in Higher Education in Uganda
    (East African Journal of Education Studies, 2022) Kibuuka, Enock
    Given the extensive social and private benefits that result from higher education (HE), access, inclusion, and completion are essential for achieving social justice, and ensuring the realisation of the full potential of those who wish to acquire HE. Yet still, many students or indeed their families, especially in low-income countries like Uganda, find it extremely difficult to access HE, whilst many of the students who join higher education institutions (HEIs) fail to complete their study programmes due to failure to meet the costs involved. On top of the various affirmative action measures aimed at increasing equitable access to HE, the Government of Uganda in 2012 introduced a financing scheme for HE that is, the Uganda Students’ Higher Education Financing Policy (USHEFP) that culminated into the Students’ Loan Scheme (SLS) with the primary aim of increasing equitable access to HE by providing loans to the qualified students who would otherwise not afford the cost of HE. The purpose of this study therefore, is to explore how the USHEFP is facilitating access, retention, and successful completion of students (policy beneficiaries) in HE. Using snow-balling and purposive sampling, the results from one-on-one interviews with participants revealed that the Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB) provides loans only for the academic component (Tuition and Functional fees) of the students, leaving out the welfare component (feeding, accommodation, scholastic materials) as well as internship and research. Without downplaying the importance of this financing policy in facilitating access to HE, nevertheless, the study revealed that the policy does not have an explicit effort to ensure that those who access the loans, complete their studies. Thus, since its inception with the first cohort of beneficiaries in 2014, the scheme has awarded loans to about 11,187 students out of whom 776 students have dropped out, translating into 6.94% of the students’ loan scheme dropouts due to inability to meet the cost of their welfare while at campus