The Law Development Centre(LDC) has been ordered by its management committee to allow students who had errors in their marks start practicing law despite having missed the just concluded 48th graduation ceremony.
There was an uproar by the bar course students after results indicated that only 145 of the 1474 students representing only 9% had passed.
This meant that over 90% of the students had failed and consequently would miss out on the 48th graduation ceremony.
Efforts by the students to petition LDC for a review of the results fell on deaf ears and consequently, the graduation ceremony continued.
However, some students petitioned the LDC management committee headed by Justice Paul Mugamba.
In its ruling, the management committee has indicated that the petition by students was referred to the examination appeals sub-committee which made some recommendations and have since been adopted.
“Having considered the above report, the management committee rules that the petitioners and other students who missed graduation in 2021 due to errors in results released by LDC be issued academic transcripts pending their subsequent graduation in 2022 and issuance of diplomas,” Justice Mugamba said.
According to the chairman of the LDC management committee, all fees paid for supplementary exams by students whose marks were missing should be refunded.
Clean your house
Justice Mugambe has also directed the Law Development Centre Academic Registrar to address all the pending examination queries before the supplementary exams later this month.
“In future, the graduation date should be synchronized with the verification and appeal processes to ensure they are completed before graduation.
“LDC should conduct a thorough review of the examination management process with a view to addressing weaknesses or gaps and improvement of the examination management system and processes,” Justice Mugamba said.
The decision is set to the communicated to the Law Council, National Council for Higher Education and other stakeholders.
By ordering LDC to issue academic transcripts to students who missed the 48th graduation, the management committee has given a greenlight to them to practice law.
About LDC
The Law Development Centre is the only institution in Uganda that offers the bar course leading to the award of the post-graduate Diploma in Legal Practice.
To this, anyone who graduates with a degree in law must enroll for an eight-month training at the LDC if they wish to work as advocates.
At the end of the eight months, one is awarded a diploma by the LDC
A lawyer cannot practice as an advocate of the High Court in Uganda without the diploma.
