Makerere University Council has scrapped a total of 20 courses bringing the number down to 62. 

A number of courses scrapped are humanity courses such as social sciences. The intention is to improve the quality at the university and spur research. 

According to Dr Vincent Ssembatya, the director of quality assurance, the university wants to increase the percentage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students from 35% to at least 40% of the total enrolment.

“We are going to be research-led and focus more on graduate training. Our curriculum is going to face more in the direction of science and technology to the level of about 40%. The country will not thrive without these disciplines,” Ssembatya said.

He added that a number of courses are going to be merged. These include community psychology as well as industrial and organisational psychology which has been merged into one programme.

Medicine students will have to do the broader course without specializing, however, thy will return later to specialize.

Seven agricultural science programmes have been merged into three. These include bachelor of science in agriculture, bachelor of science in agricultural land use and management, bachelor of agribusiness management, bachelor of agricultural and rural innovation.

Other agricultural programmes proposed for merger are bachelor of science in horticulture, bachelor of science in human nutrition and bachelor of science in food science and technology.

The university has also proposed to merge bachelor of science in telecommunication engineering, computer engineering and biomedical engineering.

All these will be revert to electrical engineering.