Hurdles of a common Ugandan medical student.

I started seeing my dream of becoming a pharmacist get into shape after choosing BCM/ICT as my combination at A level. I thought it was simple as this; finishing high school, enrolling to University for bachelors in pharmacy, spend 4 years studying (by then) plus one year of internship and boom, a pharmacist. The reality was(or is) totally very different from all I (we) were thinking about. 

The Ugandan education system doesn't not favour a common Ugandan aspiring medical student. To beat the system, you have to be either extremely bright, or extremely rich or extremely both. To my line of pharmacy and by my year of enrollment (2020/21) there were only two public universities offering Bachelors in pharmacy; Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology. What I meant with a common Ugandan aspiring medical student is someone who is capable of entering the line of medical from A level, and also being able to pay the huge tuition fee for the private universities for the same course. By my year of intake it was only one private university in the whole country offering the course (KIU).

The requirement in uganda for someone to enroll for a bachelor's degree is having 2 principal passes at A level, meaning that anyone with the 2 is eligible for any course of their choice provided it is in the line of their combination of study. However,in Uganda it's totally different.

Having scored fourteen points in BCM ICT (CDB OO) I started visualizing my great get into shape. I hurriedly applied for BPharm at MUK and then... I had been given education (biological) that was my second choice on the list. Dream shattered in my eyes. I was left with only one option. Going to the only private university for my dream program whereby the tuition was close to 5M per semester, which obviously me as a common Ugandan aspiring medical student couldn't have afforded to run for even a year. 

What happened to me is what mostly happens to most Ugandan students like myself. The direct route seems hard. Of all the students who sat A level dreaming the same, public universities absorb not more than 200; the ones who managed to score highly and can afford the tuition, except for those who go on government sponsorship.

The rest are forced to change the dream. Then the rest like myself who choose to stay focused on the dream end up taking the longest and most difficult route possible; the diploma pathway.

For context, diplomas in medical courses are reserved for students who score one principal pass in a principal subject and others subsidiaries. It is unfortunate that you find students who scored as much as 18 points going for the same. In most public health training institutions for diploma, the students found there didn't even at any moment dream of joining them. They found it as the only way of chasing their dreams. Most of these courses take 3 years (pharmacy, clinical medicine, public health dentistry, medical laboratory technology). They take relatively a short time and also the pay is somehow affordable compared to the universities. 

Of course it being tertiary education, most times the expenses are footed by the parents or guardians. For a common Ugandan aspiring medical student, that's the highest level to which parents can pay for their child's education. The dream is almost being attained, but there are fresh hurdles to overcome again. 

Public universities have two options for allowing diploma students to enroll for the bachelors programs; mature age entry and entry through the diploma qualifications. The problem is that there are always limited slots too. They normally take up a capacity of not more than 10% of the normal required intake. So even when the diploma holders try to work hard and save the money to foot the bills for their university education, still there's difficulty in getting the position. 

As of 16th April 2026, the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda (PSU) the umbrella that takes up all the pharmacists (Bachelors holders) and the National Council for Higher Education accredited 9 universities that can offer Bachelors in pharmacy. 4 public ones and 5 Private universities. Due to limited slots, they are forced to go for expensive private universities. Remember when I said that most parents stop paying for their children at a diploma level as the basic tertiary education? That's what happens. Students are made to study as they work to foot the requirements and tuition which is hard. They resort to studying day and working at night which is very draining and hectic. In public universities, studying is full time. These unfavored students end up having dead years, or even leaving the course out of exhaustion, and financial hurdles. And the worst of it all, even when they successfully finish their dream courses, they end up succumbing to obnoxious Ugandan employers with very harsh working conditions, tricky contracts, heavy taxation by the government which break the person further. The only escape route seems to be like private practice; starting up ones own pharmacy which needs a story of its own because talking about regulatory bodies, URA, local council taxes, bribes,... They make suffering part of life for a common Ugandan. 

Praise Kwats.