Makerere University Cut Off Points Saga!!Top Students Snubbed as Makerere Raises Admission Bar to Extreme Levels

Tension is steadily mounting at Makerere University as anxious parents and students continue to stream onto the institution’s hilltop campus, demanding answers over missed opportunities for government-sponsored admission—despite what many describe as outstanding academic performance.

The growing unease comes amid widespread claims that high-achieving candidates were unfairly excluded from the coveted slots. Yet university authorities are pushing back firmly, maintaining that the process was both rigorous and transparent.

The university’s Academic Registrar, Mukadasi Buyinza, dismissed suggestions of technical glitches or administrative oversights, insisting the admissions system underwent repeated verification.

“We are 100 percent accurate in our records. We have checked the system over and over. The issue is not an error; the cut-off points are very high,” Prof Buyinza said. “You needed to have 20 out of 20 at A-Level and 8 in 8 at O-Level. If you have Aggregate 9 in 8, you are almost out.”

His remarks underscore the sharp rise in competition this year, driven largely by improved national examination performance. According to the registrar, stronger results across the board forced universities to raise cut-off thresholds, effectively locking out candidates who might have qualified in previous years.

Nowhere is this trend more evident than in highly sought-after programmes. For instance, admission into the Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery required cut-off points of approximately 54.1 for female applicants and 54.4 for males—figures that reflect near-flawless academic records.

Prof Buyinza noted that achieving such scores demands consistent excellence across both A-Level and O-Level studies, not just final exam performance. While many applicants presented top A-Level grades, their earlier academic records proved decisive in the final ranking.

“Even among those with triple A, about 50 to 60 candidates were not admitted. Once a student has even one lower grade at O-Level, such as a D2 or a C, they are disadvantaged in the final ranking,” he noted.

The registrar emphasized that O-Level results remain a critical factor under public university admission policy, which evaluates cumulative academic achievement rather than isolated success.

“Education is not just about the final exam. We consider the full academic journey,” he said.

This year’s admissions cycle was further complicated by a surge in high-performing science students. Improved outcomes—particularly in subjects like biology—significantly expanded the pool of top-tier candidates competing for a fixed number of government-sponsored slots.

Despite the rising number of qualified applicants, the number of available scholarships has not increased. Uganda continues to offer roughly 4,000 government-funded university places annually across public institutions, with Makerere University accounting for about 1,672 of those positions.

“With a national population of about 45 million Ugandans and a growing number of qualified students, the demand far exceeds the available slots,” Prof Buyinza said, urging policymakers to consider expanding sponsorship opportunities.

The selection process itself was conducted collaboratively, involving all 10 public universities, which jointly sifted through approximately 10,000 of the country’s top-performing students.

Beyond academic competition, Prof Buyinza also pointed to strategic missteps by applicants. He suggested that some students undermine their chances by selecting highly competitive programmes that do not align with their strengths.

“Let’s identify our strong knowledge areas and then orient our students to take those subjects because there are many students who are not so strong in the sciences, but they have chosen to take that field,” Prof Buyinza said.

As frustration simmers among affected families, the situation highlights a broader challenge within Uganda’s education system—where rising academic achievement is colliding with limited public funding, leaving even top performers on the margins.