CREATION OF THE 'UNIVERSITY CLEARING HOUSE

MAKERERE UNIVERSITY PRIVATE STUDENTS' PARENTS' ASSOCIATION (MUPRISPA)

P.o Box 2678, Kampala. wkituuka@gmail.com

24thOctober 2001

The Director,
Planning and Development Department,
Makerere University,
P .O Box 7062,
Kampala.

Dear Mr M. Mayanja,

RE: CREATION OF THE 'UNIVERSITY CLEARING HOUSE'

I have noted with concern the inconveniencies students suffer and or endure to get cleared for various purposes as required by the University administration. This process reflects bad on the part of the University because it is greatly inefficient and painful. I have had opportunity to see students being tossed from one office to another. On one door for example it is written: “Clearance after 2 pm." What an inconvenience!
There is also the issue of receipts. This calls for modernity. If the details from a students receipt are captured into the computer data base, then it can become irrelevant on the part of the student to have to present his or her receipt and it is personal identification that should count. In the circumstances what may be required is the incorporation of the students' photographs into the computer. As the situation stands, the University can readily hire cameras from the electoral commission for the purpose.
Given the above observations, I wish to propose that the University comes up with a new department which I wish to call "The University Clearing House", with functions as stated below.
However, it is important to note that much as this is a new department, it can get much of the clerical staff from other units who currently are involved in the exercise of feeding data for their purposes. This is so given that such units would not need to feed this information again. Prominent among these is the Bursars office.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Willy Kituuka

FUNCTIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY CLEARING HOUSE

1. To receive all tuition fees and other cash as well as cheque deposit slips from various banks after their closure of business for the day. In this case, it is slips from the banks and NOT the students' deposit copies that would be entered.
2. Against the slips got from the banks (duplicates), after they have been entered by the University Clearing House, a student would pick clearance and or acknowledgement of the transaction from the University Clearing House (UCH) a day after the deposit is effected.
3. The University Clearing House would also receive cash and cheque deposit slips on a daily basis regarding transactions undertaken by the various Income Generating Units. And for efficiency in this transaction, a few bank branches would be chosen for transactions regarding these units.
4. The University Clearing House would also receive copies of all income and expenditure vouchers from the various University units on a daily basis when the said transaction has been undertaken.
5. The UCH would get daily information on other transactions involving students from the various units. This information may be posted at base as long as proper facilities of networking are in place, or details of the said transactions could be delivered at the end of business for each day.
6. The UCH may have to work up to late in the night so as to be able to come up with information regarding the transactions of the previous day.
7. The UCH would have to allocate passwords to specific individuals in each unit to enable the units to access the data base relevant to their unit from the UCH.
8. The UCH would come up with a detailed format (for computer purposes) to be used in the facilitation of instant clearing of the students so that the students do not need to call at each and every unit to seek clearance.
9. The UCH would therefore eliminate the need for the Bursars office to enter the cash and cheque deposit slip amounts per student in respect of the fees payments.
10. The establishment of the UCH would ensure that a central point is established from which the stand of each unit could be deduced instantly. In the banking terms, this could be referred to as the UCH holding an account of each of the University units at any given point in time.
11. The UCH would endeavour to get bank statements on a daily basis from the various commercial banks that transact business with the University units.
12. The UCH would deal with all student clearances and have this role shifted from the Bursars office where a lot of inefficiency and suffering is experienced by those who seek clearance.
13. The UCH would avail daily reports to the various units of the University and ensure that the duplication of work by individual units that currently feed data is eliminated, and that all transactions affecting the units be accessed at the UCH.
14. In principle therefore, each of the Units would be given a different code, and under that code all transactions affecting that unit would be posted and properly checked. In the event that networking to all the University units is not possible, what would be required is to have a few authorised people from each unit given passwords. This would be the key that would entitle them to access information by calling at the UCH enter the password and have a print out of the transactions that may be needed for their purposes.
15. After posting the transactions of the day and having them checked, the day's vouchers would be counted and recorded at the Clearing House and thereafter signed for by the recipient representing a given unit.