Unfair Selection!! Why Makerere’s Law Admissions Need Serious Review, Unmasking The Dirty Games Played During The Selection

Makerere University is Uganda’s top institution, respected for producing the country’s finest legal minds. But recently, questions have been raised about how students are selected for government sponsorship under the Law program of recent. The issue revolves around the pre-entry examination, which is supposed to assess students’ readiness for the legal profession.

This year, the pre-entry exam was held on April 12, 2025, and Makerere announced that students needed to score at least 50% to pass. However, what followed shocked many. It was observed that students with as low as 12 points from UNEB were awarded government-sponsored law slots, while those with 20 points—the maximum possible—were only offered private admission. This has sparked concerns of injustice, lack of transparency, and inconsistency in the admission process.

Makerere University admitted 1,732 government-sponsored students across 73 academic programs based on their Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) results. However, for the Law program, the selection process seems unclear. The public deserves to know how UNEB scores interact with the pre-entry exam results, and what weight each carries. Without clear guidelines, the system leaves too much room for doubt and suspicion.

A key question is: Who sets and marks these pre-entry exams? Is there a trusted and standardized body, similar to UNEB, involved in this process? Or is it handled internally with no external oversight? These are serious concerns because transparency in academic selection is critical for maintaining public trust.

Another troubling issue is the cost of coaching. There are claims that some students pay millions of shillings for specialized coaching to prepare for these exams. This gives an unfair advantage to wealthier students, especially those in urban areas. What about the bright but poor students from rural areas, who travel to Kampala for the first time to sit for a test based on a curriculum they may not fully understand? This kind of system deepens inequality and shuts out deserving candidates.

In my view, the pre-entry exam should not be used as a gatekeeper that overrules UNEB results. Instead, it should act as a supporting tool to measure a student’s basic understanding of the law and readiness for the program. The continued preference for candidates who pass a non-transparent exam over those with strong national academic results is deeply unfair.

To fix this, the Ministry of Education, the National Council for Higher Education, and the Joint Admissions Board must work together to create a fairer, more transparent system. The current situation is hurting Uganda’s brightest students and shaking public confidence in our education institutions.