Victoria University Vice Chancellor Lawrence Muganga has explained why the top management chose socialite Bad black real names Shanitah Namuyimbwa.
Bad Black, was unveiled at Victoria University on Monday last Monday, shortly after she applied to take on two short courses at the university.
This attracted mixed reactions from the public who wondered whether having a school drop-out and confessed prostitute as a brand ambassador for a university is a good idea.
Allan Kasujja, a Ugandan working for the BBC in London tweeted saying “Bad Black as a brand ambassador for a university is amazing. Wild. Disruptive. Anti-clockwise thinking. Brilliant. What rules? I love it. Victoria University is pushing a strong/important accessibility message!”. Many think the move was geared more towards securing more numbers as opposed to quality, leaving them concerned about the state of the nation given that the standards of some universities are now questionable.
In response to these criticisms, the university Vice-Chancellor Dr. Lawrence Muganga said in a press release that” We would like to tell the public that Victoria University has an innate mandate to transform society through providing quality and meaningful education that works for everyone without discrimination or segregation.”
He emphasised that Bad Black’s enrolment was an initiative intended to transform and rehabilitate the lives of people who desperately need help to become better people through pursuing different short courses which can change their future, just like Bad Black had chosen to do. He further explained that Bad Black has expressed her passionate desire to pursue two short courses at the university: English language and Digital Marketing, and the university had not paid her any money.
As far as her being unveiled as the new brand ambassador for the university was concerned, Dr. Lawrence had this to say: “It is also important to note that Victoria University students and the Alumni community are our ambassadors, therefore since Ms Shanitah Namuyimba is our student, she automatically becomes a Victoria University Student Ambassador.”
The Vice-Chancellor also highlighted the fact that the education system in Uganda has let down so many students who when in senior six, fail to get 2 principal passes or only manage to get 2 subsidiaries, are categorized as failures and asked to resit their UACE examinations. Victoria University however allows them to pursue Higher Education Certificate to prepare them to achieve a degree of their choice later.