Final Report
REPORT TO SENATE
BY
THE SENATE ADHOC COMMITTEE ON THE
PRODUCTION OF TRANSCRIPTS AND
CERTIFICATES
NOVEMBER 2006
Members
1. Dr. Venansius Baryamureeba
________________________
2. Dr. Sylvia Tamale
________________________
3. Dr. Vincent A. Ssembatya
________________________
4. Dr. Hannington Sengendo
________________________
5. Ms. Annette Kyomuhangi
________________________
Secretariat
1. Michael Niyitegeka
________________________
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Final Report
1.0
Introduction
The University Senate at its special meeting held on 26th July 2006, noted
with concern the public outcry and growing problem surrounding transcript
and certificate processing at the University. In that regard it set-up a Senate
Ad-Hoc Committee to investigate the matter.
1.1
Membership
1. Dr. Venansius Baryamureeba
2. Dr. Sylvia Tamale
3. Dr. Vincent A. Ssembatya
4. Dr. Hannington Sengendo
5. Ms. Annette Kyomuhangi
Dean – CIT/Chairperson
Dean – Law
Dean – Science
Dean – Arts
Guild Minister (AA)1
The committee formally received communication from the Academic Registrar
on 2nd August 2006 constituting the committee. Mr. Michael Niyitegeka of the
Faculty of Computing and IT was selected to act as the committee’s
secretary. The committee held its first meeting on 11th August 2006.
1.2
Terms of Reference
Senate gave the committee the following Terms of Reference:
i)
To investigate the reasons for the delays in the production of
transcripts and certificates;
ii)
To investigate alleged forgeries and extortion of money from
graduates/clients;
iii)
To recommend an action plan to Senate, for addressing the
above issues;
iv)
To submit a report within two months.
1.3
Methodology
In order to undertake the assignment, the committee adopted a multi-faceted
approach.
1.3.1 Meetings:
The committee held meetings to discuss and analyse issues that arose
during the course of the investigations. An initial meeting was held to
interpret the Terms of Reference and to ascertain the scope of work to be
undertaken by the committee.
1.3.2 Familiarization Visit:
The committee noted that in order to make appropriate recommendations
it had to visit specific departments to familiarize itself with the relevant
procedures and processes in the specific units of the department of the
Academic Registrar and various academic units. All units visited for this
purpose appear in appendix II.
1
AA= Academic Affairs
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1.3.3 Interviews
Interviews were conducted with various stakeholders to gather in-depth
information about transcript and certificate production. Respondents were
purposively selected after identifying the issues that were to be focused on
by the committee.
1.3.4 Document Review
A number of documents were compiled and later reviewed by the
committee. These documents facilitated the committee in capturing
pertinent issues. The documents were obtained from the relevant
departments that are directly related to the production of transcripts and
certificates. All significant documents are attached to this report as
appendices.
1.3.5 Acquired Contact Mobile Phone Number and E-Mail Address
The committee acquired a mobile phone number and an email address for
accessibility by potential interviewees. These were meant to facilitate easy
communication between potential interviewees and the committee.
Through this mechanism the committee was able to acquire important
leads that greatly informed this report.
2.0
Specific Issues Addressed by the Committee
At the initial meeting, after the committee had internalised and interpreted the
Terms of Reference, it strategised its programme of action as follows:
2.1
ToR 1:To investigate the reasons for the delays in production of
transcripts and certificates
a) Map the process of acquiring transcripts and certificates to identify the
gaps;
b) Identify the potential process defects;
c) Identify who is involved in the transcript process;
d) Evaluate the Academic Records Information System (ARIS);
e) Identify and sample two Faculties that do not have problems with the
transcripts office and two that have had persistent problems with the
transcripts office;
f) Examine the filing and cataloguing system in the transcripts office in
order to establish how long it takes to retrieve a file of any given year;
g) Examine the status of the human and financial resources in the
Academic Registrar’s department and issues related to motivation of
staff;
h) Identify the different systems used in producing transcripts and
certificates in order to ascertain the problems associated with each of
the systems;
i) Examine the documents that are related to the ARIS (e.g. the systems
requirements proposal, ARIS documentation, progress reports, minutes
of the implementation committee etc.).
2.2
ToR 2:
To investigate alleged forgeries and extortion
of money from graduates/clients
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a) Agreed to limit the scope of investigations to the Academic
Registrar’s Department;
b) Agreed to contact Dr. Nakanyike Musisi, the Director of MISR who
had promised, during the senate meeting, to provide contacts of
persons who have information about these allegations;
c) Identify the instances where money is being extorted;
d) Examine the nature of the documents (transcript and certificate) to
establish whether they are easy to forge;
e) Contact the Academic Registrar to avail the committee with
information on the forgery cases he has received;
f) Need to identify potential interviewees e.g. former students, officers
that have been involved in investigating forgery cases or
implicated).
2.3
ToR 3 & 4: To recommend to the Senate, an action plan to
address the above issues & To submit a report within two
months
ToR’s 3 & 4 shall be a result of ToR 1 & 2
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3.0
FINDINGS
ToR 1:
TO INVESTIGATE THE
REASONS FOR THE DELAYS IN PRODUCTION OF TRANSCRIPTS
AND CERTIFICATES
Retrieval of students’ files remains a challenge. The procedure is such that
when the graduation lists are released, the transcripts office begins the
processing of transcripts for those persons who have complete results. In the
same spirit the records office is expected to transfer all the files for persons
who are to graduate to the transcripts office to start the processing of
transcripts. What was noted from the reports was that a substantial number of
the files are not transferred for one reason or the other. In some cases these
students are told to go back to the faculties to access their duplicate files. This
was confirmed by the faculty registrars who stated that students are usually
sent to get their files from the Faculties2 and that the process of requisitioning
for duplicate files is a cumbersome task and in most cases time consuming.
3.1
Production of Transcripts
The delays in the production of transcripts was found to stem from the
following problems:
a) Incomplete/wrong information from the Faculties
This is a major problem since the production of transcripts entirely depends
on information from academic units. Some units submit results that are
incomplete and others did not update the results for students who had
retakes. It was also noted that there were problems of contradictory
information on students and programmes from the units and that in the ARIS.
This was especially common with information in relation to student’s personal
details like order of names, date of birth, course codes, course names, and
course credit units. In such circumstances the Faculties are requested to
clarify the discrepancies and in most cases the clarification takes time to be
received at the Academic Registrar’s department. It was further noted that
some academic units unilaterally change course codes without informing the
AR’s department.
b) Delayed submission of graduands’ complete results from
Faculties
It is a requirement that faculties shall submit a complete set of results for
students’ that are graduating. Faculties are required to submit results from
year one to the final year for each student. It was noted that some units do
not submit all the results at once meaning that the AR’s Department has to
solicit for these results in order to draft and produce a complete transcript.
c) Delayed transmission of Students’ files/Missing documents on
students file
Before the transcripts office can process a transcript, it retrieves student’s
personal files for purposes of verifying data on each student. These files are
stored in the Records Department on the 2nd Floor of Senate Building.
2
“Faculties” this applies to Schools and Institutes
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The filing system and the records department is an eye sore (see photos in
appendix I). The manner in which the files are stored and handled leaves a lot
to be desired. The situation in the records office can best be described as a
“dumping office”.
It was noted that the current filing and retrieval systems were challenging
tasks indeed. The majority of complaints regarding delayed transcripts are
related to missing files or missing documents on students’ files.
There is no proper archiving system in place and it is this weakness that
compounds the retrieving process. It can take up to a month before a
student’s file is traced although the committee was informed that on average it
takes about two weeks.
d) Ready transcripts with no clearance/transcript request forms
The committee received and reviewed documents from the transcripts office.
It was noted that there are about 1,123 transcripts that would have been
ready long ago for the 2005 and 2006 graduating classes but are not for the
fact that clearances/transcript request forms are missing from students’ files.
This implies that the process cannot be completed until such persons apply
for the transcripts. It is such files that create backlogs (the files are kept
pending) and sometimes create the delays that would have been avoided.
This information is posted on the notice boards on fifth floor of Senate House.
e) Uncollected transcripts
Whereas there are some delays in the process, there are also cases where
transcripts were ready and their respective owners had not collected them.
This had implications on storage space since the office had to improvise
storage facilities for the uncollected transcripts. The challenge with this is that
when the person finally collects the transcript and finds a mistake the process
has to start all over again which will essentially cause unwarranted delays.
f) Lack of Secure Storage Space
The transcripts, certificate and records offices all raised the issue of lack of
secure storage space. The committee visited the specific units and
ascertained that indeed the issue of lack of space was in a way impinging on
the fast production of certificates and transcripts. The committee noted that if
the Senate building were to catch a fire or otherwise destroyed the university
would lose all the records on the students that have gone through the
university. The worst hit unit could be that of records where students’ files are
kept. The certificate office lamented that there is no specific room that is
designated as storage facility. This particular office has filling cabinets, which
were also not adequate. The inadequacy could be attributed to the lack of
space.
g) Inadequate Human Resource Capacity
This was noted as a major problem. All units visited in the Academic
Registrar’s department raised the concern of inadequate human resource
capacity. Whereas the load of work has tremendously increased, the
department has not had an increase in its staff establishment for a very long
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time. This has a direct impact on the production of transcripts and certificates.
The same scenario was noted at the Faculties where the personnel deployed
to handle students’ results is inadequate and thus impedes service delivery.
The Faculty Registrars in addition to handling students’ results, they register
students, take minutes for all committees in the Faculties and attend to
students’ matters like application for dead semester/year and retakes.
h) Poor Motivation systems
The committee interacted with some members of staff in the Academic
Registrar’s department who expressed their dissatisfaction with motivation
mechanism employed by the university. The discrepancy in pay between
academic staff and administrative staff was cited as an issue that required
urgent attention by the University. This strongly impacts on the production
rate. The issue of “vacationers” was also raised and it was noted that the
amount paid to vacationers was higher than that of some administrative staff
in the AR’s department. The vacationers are paid 8,000/= net per day implying
that at the end of the month one can take home between 250,000/= and
280,000/=. The committee also noted that there was no formal mechanism of
recruiting vacationers, which may open the system to abuse. Some
respondents informed the committee that the majority of these vacationers are
children of senior officers in the University, an allegation that the committee
could not verify much as it appreciated its impact on the working ethics of
such persons.
i) Slow ARIS Implementation
The university procured an integrated information system three years ago.
The system has three parts namely, Academic Records Information System
(ARIS), Financial Information System (FINIS), and Human Resource
Information System (HURIS). To date the ARIS system is not fully operational.
The committee was informed that the South African consultants have not yet
formally handed over the system to Makerere University and thus the system
is not commissioned. The ARIS has several modules, which if operational,
would markedly reduce the burden of transcript and certificate production. The
only fully-fledged module currently operational on the ARIS is the registration
module. This module captures students’ biodata plus all information regarding
their academic status at the University.
The committee noted that the transcripts office developed an in-house system
that generates transcripts. The local system has been in operation for the
last two years and no major challenges have been encountered so far with
this system. The AR’s Department has only one person with a computing
background with the rest learning on the job. This has a significant impact on
the implementation of ARIS since a lot of time has been spent on learning
how to operate the system. An overview of the ARIS progress report dated 2 nd
August 2006 is attached to this report as appendix III.
j) Transcript Processing
The process to acquire a transcript is not long but is complicated by the fact
that its efficiency largely depends on information originating from other units. If
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the information from either the academic units or the records office is
incomplete/faulty it means that the process will stall for as long as it takes to
acquire the desired documents. The students too have a significant role to
play because unless they submit their Transcript Request Forms it is not
possible for the production cycle to be complete. The workflow diagram below
represents the process of Transcript production as a flow of activities.
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Transcript Process Map
The programmedrafting officer receives
results from the Faculty
Results are
uploaded
onto
the
System
Draft
transcript
Printed
Request for student’s
files sent to the
Records department
Student submits
completed
transcript request
form
Records
Department
searches for the
respective files
File submitted
drafts officer
to
File received and updated
with draft transcript and
transcript request form
Verify the contents on
the file in line with
printed draft transcript
Student informed to submit
missing information if and where
need arises
Print copy for signing
Verify the contents on
the file in line with
printed transcript
Student’s name displayed on Ready
Transcripts slot on the Notice
Boards
Sign the transcript
forward to 5th Floor
reception for collection
by student
Student collects
Reception
transcript
from
Level
5
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k) Lack of facilitation for the officers
It was noted with concern that a number of officers are not adequately
facilitated with equipment such as computers, printers, photocopiers and other
materials like stationery, etc. (like Institute of Adult and Continuing Education
there is an old computer, which is not functional, School of Education the
registrar has no computer). Lack of proper facilitation curtails the processing
and onward submission of results to the AR’s department. Registrar’s also
need computers connected to the internet to be able to register students in
the ARIS.
3.2
Production of Certificates
The production of certificates is almost the same as that of transcripts.
Nevertheless there are a few differences.
The processing of certificates depends on information got from the AR’s office
for those students that have graduated. To process a certificate the office
requires all the results from year one to the final year to check and validate
the class of degree one has got. This is done for every student and is
thereafter submitted to the office of the Academic Registrar for endorsement
before the actual certificate is produced. Unlike the production transcripts,
which depend on the “transcript request form” filled by students, the
production of certificates is per programme, implying that students do not
have to apply for certificates but rather wait until there are produced. Students
expected keep checking on the notice board to see whether their certificates
are ready. The committee was able to note the following peculiar issues
related to the production of certificates.
3.2.1 Results from Academic Units
The Academic Registrar’s Department and specifically the transcript office
receives results from Academic Units. The certificate office does not receive a
copy of the results and thus entirely depends on a copy from the transcript’s
office. This means that the process of producing certificates can only begin
after the transcripts office has completed its work. The committee was
informed that in most cases the officers in the certificate office have to source
for results from their counterparts in the transcripts office.
3.2.2 Lack of constant supply of “Certificate Blanks”
Unlike the transcript materials, which can be sourced locally, the materials
used in the production of certificates are imported. This special paper with
only one supplier is custom-made for each programme. The committee was
informed that in most cases there are no “Certificate Blanks” and sometimes
suppliers take quite a long time. This affects the production process.
3.2.3 Lack of information on new approved programmes
Both the Transcripts and certificates office expressed their dissatisfaction with
the gap in information on some cases of new programmes that are approved
by Senate. The committee learnt that there have been instances where
programmes have been approved, students admitted, and reach the level of
graduation and these offices are not aware of such a programme. The
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implication was that when such students come to pick their certificates the
office is not aware and this would delay the process.
3.2.4 Lack of adequate Personnel
The certificate office had four persons working in this unit. These persons
handle the processing of certificates for all university programmes. This
inadequacy impedes on the processing and eventual production of
certificates. With more than 10,000 students graduating each year, the
workload is immense for these officers to handle. It is not uncommon for one
to receive one’s certificates years after securing one’s transcript. The
committee was informed of the elaborate process of producing a certificate
and one person handled this. (Because of the sensitivity of the process
involved, this report will not cover this information).
ToR 2:
TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGED FORGERIES AND EXTORTION OF MONEY FROM
GRADUATES/CLIENTS
The committee undertook this assignment with a lot of caution. It was able to
receive links to persons that are likely to be involved in forgeries and extortion
of money from the graduates/clients.
All indications revealed that cases of forgeries and extortion of money from
graduates exist and some officers in the Academic Registrar’s department are
involved.
Specifically, the committee ascertained that some officers in the transcripts
office were involved in the extortion of money. The revelation is that, it is not
the officers in charge of processing the transcripts that are involved but rather
the support officers in the department. In some instances the vacationers
were reported to be involved is the scam. Persons involved in the scam
normally ask for up to 30,000/= to “expedite” the process. It was also noted
that some of these persons take advantage of having the inside knowledge
that the transcripts are already printed and ready for collection and then ask
for money from unsuspecting graduates whom they tell to check in say, two
hours for their transcripts.
On forgeries the committee established that some transcripts and certificates
are forged. Makerere University transcripts are especially easy to forge as it
has few security features. The forging business is big and goes beyond the
gates of Makerere University to Wandegeya, William Street, Nasser Street,
etc. What was stunning to note was that in the cases where students were
caught with forged transcripts the only action taken was to withdraw the
forged transcript and give the students the correct version. No legal action has
been taken by the university except report a few random cases to the police.
Even then, such cases are not followed up and the culprits are hardly ever
brought to book. The spotlight article of Sunday 20 th February 2005 provides
a lot of insight on the forging industry. (Copy attached).
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The committee also received leads from the community about admission letter
forgeries. An original admission letter is scanned and the particular details
changed to suit the buyer’s needs. The charge may be as low as Ushs.
4,000/= only. The committee was informed of a secretarial bureau located in
Wadegeya that was involved in this activity through the use of an informant
this was confirmed as being true.
4.0
RECOMMENDATIONS
a) There is need to urgently invest in the records department by putting in
place a state-of-the-art infrastructure (both physical and virtual)for the
efficient and high performance delivery of students’ data. Automating
the records department should be of priority in the shortest time
possible.
b) Processes for obtaining an academic transcript should be streamlined.
The transcripts office should offer guidance to its stakeholders. For
example, the transcripts office must come up with a standard results
submission format that must be adhered to by all academic units. Only
results submitted following the accepted format should be accepted.
c) The University should address the current Human Resource deficiency
experienced in the Academic Registrar’s department as under-staffing
was found to be a major problem.
d) ARIS must be fully implemented. All modules must be commissioned
for usage.
e) The transcripts office must use the senate-approved courses/curricula
and must insist that the academic units adhere to the same.
f) Only students whose results are complete should be allowed to
graduate. This will eliminate some of the delays and frustrations
experienced by students at the time of requesting for transcripts. In
this regard, adequate time should be allowed between the deadline of
submission of results and graduation to allow thorough checking of
results.
g) The staff in the AR’s department should be well facilitated to undertake
their tasks. The provision of equipment such as computers and printers
should be the mandate of the Academic Registrar’s department.
h) The supply of Certificate Blanks must be addressed accordingly. This
problem was identified as a major obstacle to the speedy processing of
certificates.
i) The Senate Division within the Academic Registrar’s department must
communicate (in writing) any new approved and/or amended
programmes to the Transcripts office and certificate office in a timely
fashion. This will eliminate the misunderstandings that sometimes take
place between the transcripts office, certificate office and the academic
units.
j) There is need to streamline the work of the various Units within the
Academic Registrar’s Department. To have, for example, a unit
registrar undertake the registration of students, provide secretarial
services to all committees at unit level, work on the results, among
others could be asking for too much especially with the increased
student population.
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k) The transcripts office should improve its public relations efforts and
develop effective mechanisms of communicating to all its stakeholders.
It is not good practice for students to keep on walking to that office and
being told to “keep checking.” A website could be designed so that
students could log on from any part of the country (or the world) to
check on the status of their transcripts production before travelling to
Makerere University to collect them.
l) The Academic Registrar's Department should keep an updated record
of results submitted at the end of each semester to avoid future
requests for resubmission of all the results of each student from 1st
year up to the end of the final year before graduation. The current
practice of requesting for the results of the students for all the
semesters before graduation may encourage forgeries especially for
big classes of students since Deans/ Directors or Faculty/ Institute
Boards do not sit again to approve the requested results before
submission.
m) The Certificate office should only use the copy of the transcript
in order to process the certificate. There is no point in looking at
raw results and files again.
n) Makerere University should desist from the habit of employing
vacationers in sensitive departments like the Academic Registrar's
Department. Permanent staff with clear terms and conditions of service
should be recruited to replace Vacationers in the Academic Registrar's
Department.
o) The University should ensure that all those persons found in
possession of forged university documents are handed over to the
relevant authorities for prosecution.
p) The AR’s Department should install emergency fire fighting systems in
all units where academic/students records are kept.
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Plate 1: Files in Room 310 on the floor
Plate 2: Files stacked against the wall. Note the labels loosely taped on the wall.
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Plate 3: The New Filing frames that have installed in Rm 310 & 313
Send to nbkiremire@cit.mak.ac.ug
Plate 4: Files in the Corridor of Level three, and forms stacked on the wall before filing
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Plate 5: Files that have been returned after the processing the transcripts
Plate 6: Files for the 1920-70's arranged according to programmes
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Appendix II
List of Persons Interviewed
Senior Assistant Registrar – Transcripts office
Senior Assistant Registrar – Certificates Office
Deputy Registrar - Ceremonies and Certificates
Deputy Registrar – Undergraduate admissions
and Records/Chairperson ARIS Implementation
Committee
5. Ms. Eva Nagayi
Records Clerk
6. Mr. Bernard Ekwamu
Records Clerk
7. Ms. Faith Kasule
Senior Assistant Registrar – Certificates Office
8. Mr. Chris Ntwatwa –
Systems Developer/Administrator
9. Mr. Thomas Baguma
Faculty Registrar – Arts
10. Dr. Abbas Kiyimba
Deputy Dean Arts – Undergraduate affairs and
Examinations
10. Mr. Charles Kawumi
Faculty Registrar – Science
11. Ms. Resty Naiga
Institute Registrar – IACE
12. Ms. Deborah Nakiyiwa
Examinations Officer
13. Mr. Polycap Kizza
Deputy Registrar – School of Education
14. Mr. Herbert Batamye
Faculty Registrar – Agriculture
15. Ms. Sarah Lanyero
Asst. Registrar – Transcripts office
16. Ms. Mary Harriet Ndobooli Asst. Registrar – Transcripts office
17. Mrs. Patience R. Mushengyezi Senior Asst. Registrar- Transcripts office
18. Former Students
19. Data Migration Department AR’s Department
1.
2.
3.
4.
Mr. Frederick Kyazze,
Mr. Tom Otim,
Mrs. Margaret Etuusa,
Mr. Vincent Ekwang,
Units Visited
1. Academic Registrar’s Department
2. Institute of Adult and Continuing Education
Chairperson: ________________________
Secretary:
________________________
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