Lira is one the new cities in Uganda with a public university - Lira University. Other new cities that have similar advantage include Gulu, Soroti and Mbarara.

Established in 2015, Lira University has  identified "Public Health of the community and the safety of lives at birth" as one the challenges it seeks to address. This means that, from the very start, LU has focused on science & technology, like Mbarara University of Science & Technology. They had only science-related courses. But recently, they introduced arts courses, and we know that this is mainly aimed at increasing student enrollment. It is a well-known fact that science programmes do not attract many students.

They have released the private admissions list for academic year 2020/2021, for only undergraduate programmes.

Overall, applicants admitted from Lira district were (95), Kole (28), Amolatar (12), Oyam (30), Otuke (12), Dokolo (12), Apac (35), Kwania (07) and Alebtong (33). This constitutes about 77% (264 out of 342) of private admissions, implying that most applicants (students) are choosing to stay local and study at nearby Lira University.

We also looked at the admission data, taking interest in how different top schools within Lango sub-region performed. We discovered interesting trends. From the data, it is clear that schools that register good performance in UCE & UACE are not necessarily good at sending students to university, especially under private admissions scheme. This points to lack of career guidance & advising in schools across the region.

Lira Town College emerged top, largely because we were implementing the Career Assistance Programme there. Francis Kidega & Ceaser Otee helped a lot in mobilizing those students to apply, and we also provided remote support (through WhatsApp, Facebook, google forms) during lock-down. This validates our focus on effective career guidance as a way of opening pathways to success in school & a better life after school.

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