Virtual University of Uganda Courses Offered

There are several Courses offered at Virtual University. The list of courses is below.

Programme Information

Postgraduate Diploma International Development Studies

These courses may also be taken as stand-alone certificate courses as part of Continuous Professional Development.

Postgraduate Diploma Public Health

•These courses may also be taken as stand-alone certificate courses as part of Continuous Professional Development.

Admission Criteria

•All prospective students must meet the admission criteria as set for each programme of study in the University. The University shall follow the admission criteria as set by the National Council of Higher Education. All completed application forms should be sent to the University Secretary at the Virtual University of Uganda.

•For entry to the postgraduate diplomas in Public Health and International Development, applicants should possess a good second-class degree from a recognized institution and achieved a pass mark in the VUU Graduate Admission Test. Applicants should have at least five years job-related experience in their field of study. All students should have an adequate knowledge of computers and access to a reliable internet connection, preferably owning a laptop and an internet USB dongle.

•All students must have registered initially by the date stipulated in the university calender. In order to access course materials online, students must pay the full fee for the course on the date specified.

•All fees are to be paid directly to the University’s bank account. Bank slips or bank drafts will be acknowledged when registering for each module in a programme.

Quality Assurance at VUU

Given the demand for greater accountability at all levels in the education process at tertiary level, the Virtual University of Uganda has set up a Quality Assurance unit responsible for Quality Assurance at all levels of university teaching and administration. Against its mission of providing third-level education of the highest quality, the Virtual University of Uganda is aware of the need to ensure relevance in relation to all programmes taught, and how the operations of the university are run, so that it can aspire to become a “centre of excellence” in the field of tertiary education.

Even though the concept of quality is not easy to define, especially in relation to teaching and learning in higher education, it can encompass the following ideas: value for money on the part of the student, excellence in teaching / administration / graduates, student satisfaction, or simply that the programmes of study are “fit for purpose”. Thus, quality assurance can be described as the process of ensuring that institutions of higher learning provide education that is “for for the purpose” for which it is meant, that is: measuring courses and programmes against their objectives and overall mission of the institution.

In setting up this unit in the university – which is located in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor – the university seeks to ensure that:

all academic departments are aware of the changing needs of society, students themselves, and their eventual employers, and implement appropriate programmes to meet these needs

that all stakeholders trust Virtual University of Uganda to implement the recommendations of its quality assurance mechanisms in the pursuit of constant improvement.

Quality Assurance Mechanisms

This means that appropriate QA procedures are in place at all levels in the university and the results of the various QA procedures form the basis for future strategies in terms of teaching and learning. At VUU, QA procedures operate both at the level of the institution as a whole (administratively and academically), and at the faculty level (administratively and academically).

The following support structures are also subject to QA scrutiny: student learning experiences, student support mechanisms, e-Library access and holdings, registry services, and administrative services. QA mechanisms at VUU takes the following forms:

Academic

Student Evaluation:

students evaluate the teaching materials and tutoring of individual courses students undertake an annual evaluation of their programme of study

students evaluate their diploma /degree programme at the end of the programme.

Self Assessment:

lecturers undertake an annual self assessment of their teaching. Peer Evaluation:

lecturers may be invited to undertake assessment of their peers in a spirit of co- operation.

Dean’s Assessment:

deans will be invited to complete an annual assessment of each of their teaching staff.

External Evaluation:

external examiners will be appointed for a selected number of courses taught each academic year in each department.

Administration

–administrative heads of department / immediate supervisors will assess their staff annually

–administrative staff will assess their immediate heads of department / supervisors annually

–deans in each faculty and heads of administrative departments will complete an annual assessment of academic and administrative staff

–academic and administrative staff in each faculty and administrative department will complete an annual assessment of their dean / head / director

–deans and senior administrative staff will complete an annual assessment of the Senior Management Team (SMT) of the university

the SMT will undertake an annual evaluation of deans and senior administrators.

Assessment of Students

Given that individual learning experiences of students determine the success or failure of an institution, the assessment of students is an integral part of the learning and teaching process. It is because assessment plays a key part in maintaining academic standards, that all students have the right to undergo fair and tested assessment. All students enrolled at VUU will be notified of the criteria against which their performance will be measured. In this way, the

University will ensure that all methods used to assess student performance are fair and fit for purpose.

Individual lecturers will ensure that all assessed coursework is set in a timely manner with a clear statement of what is required, in what form and by when, and a clear indication of the criteria by which performance will be judged. All coursework will be returned to students with appropriate feedback within a reasonable period of time.

All academic staff and students are expected to read the VUU Scholarly Guidelines (given at the end of this document) at the beginning of each academic year.

All students at VUU will be encouraged to develop critical thinking skills through well thought- out teaching methods. The university observes a strict policy on plagiarism: the copying or paraphrasing of other people’s work or ideas without full acknowledgement. The university statement on plagiarism can be found in the Student Handbook and the eLibrary pages.

Feedback and Improvement

Since the major objective of the QA system at VUUU is to bring about improvement through feedback and accountability, it has been designed to focus not only on the quality of the delivery /sharing of knowledge, but also on the processes through which students gain the knowledge that will earn them a relevant qualification in the future. Since QA mechanisms can have a tendency to be bureaucratic – and can be seen by some individuals as a means of control – at VUU, the QA procedures and their results will be transparent. All staff will receive feedback and the support necessary to develop and improve. In order to ensure that reflection on the outcomes of evaluation takes place and that this results in continuous improvement, the results of continuous evaluation and measurement will be followed up at department / faculty / administrative unit levels.