Prime
Over 1,500 law students miss LDC admission
Entrance of the Law Development Centre (LDC) in Kampala. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- The question of numbers comes amid the increasing numbers of universities accredited to teach the law degree. This has awakened a debate on liberalising the Bar Course to private institutions while LDC retains the mandate as an examining body.
The Law Development Centre (LDC) has admitted only 663 new applicants of the more than 2,000 students who applied to pursue the Bar Course, locking out close to 1,500 others who passed their university exams.
In addition to the new applicants, 597 students who were not admitted in the previous intake but had received offer letters, were admitted with this cohort.
The total number of admitted applicants was 1,260 plus 240 students are meant to retake failed subjects, bringing the total number of students offering the Bar Course this year to 1,500.
The new LDC leadership led by Dr Pamela Tibihikiira-Kalyegira has reduced the total capacity of students at LDC to 1,500 compared to 1,929 in the 2023/24 intake.
The management used the 28 percent selection criteria based on performance (Cumulative Grade Point Average) to reduce the intake
LDC Kampala Campus got the lion’s share of the admissions of 630 students, followed by the Mbarara campus with 420, while the Lira campus admitted the least students at 210.
Unlike the previous admissions, LDC published names of successful applicants according to slots awarded to the accredited law schools. By press time, the lists had not been available at the request of Monitor as promised by the Academic Registrar.
Mr Hassan SSenyondo, the Dean of School of Law at Islamic University in Uganda, told Monitor that they are not aware how many of their students have been admitted to the Bar Course.
“LDC has left us in suspense with little information on how students were admitted. Let it publish the names of the successful applicants and show how many students were admitted per university,” Mr Ssenyondo said.
LDC in a statement said so many law students have been left out due to limited resources.
“Following the 2024/25 academic year Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice admissions, we admitted the maximum number of students on the basis of the resources made available by the government; since then, we have received several concerns about those who were left out,” they said.
The management of LDC said it has since embarked on engaging the Attorney General and the Law Council to determine the next course of action on those left out.
When contacted, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka said he is engaging with the leadership at LDC on the matter and he would inform the public of the outcome when they are ready.
The question of numbers comes amid the increasing numbers of universities accredited to teach the law degree. This has awakened a debate on liberalising the Bar Course to private institutions while LDC retains the mandate as an examining body.
