Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) policy on expansion stresses the need to have UMU's presence felt in all the four Ecclesiastical Provinces of Uganda. So far most of the activities of UMU are in Kampala Ecclesiastical Province. Mbale Campus in the Ecclesiastical Province of Tororo was officially opened in October, 2010. A memorandum of understanding was signed with the Diocese of Lira on 24th March, 2010 to have UMU's third campus opened in Ngetta in the Ecclesiastical Province of Gulu. UMU wishes to introduce a new approach to education viz. The "Hard Work Concept" along the lines of the "Hard Work University", College of the Orzaks in Missouri, USA. The goal is to encourage and foster the development of CHARACTER and value driven endeavours. Its objective is to enable students appreciate the value of work well done, and not to look down upon any activity or occupation. Thus students at Ngetta Campus, in addition to their regular academic pursuits, would rotate though various work stations i.e. compound cleaning, security, cafeteria services, driving university vehicles, construction and repair of "University buildings, university farm and office work. Supervisors will grade students not only in their academic, but equally so in their physical work performance. In return the students do not have to pay tuition. The main challenge is the urgent need to establish an endowment fund to sustain the project as students will not be paying tuition w ich for UMU happens to be its mai n source of revenue. There is need as well to rehabilitate infrastructure at Ngetta to the level that is acceptable to the National Council for Higher Education. There is need to establish from the outset an active programme of community engagement. An interim Director of the Ngetta Campus has been appointed, in the person of Rev. Fr. Simon Peter Olugu. A local planning committee is in place. An advocate for Ngetta has been appointed i.e. Associate Professor Simeon Wanyama, Deputy Vice Chancellor Finance and Administration at UMU. UMU has put aside an initial sum of UGX 100,000,000/ (one hundred million shillings) to establish an endowment fund. The hard work campus at Ngetta would serve as a Pilot project not only for UMU but for the entire educational system and policy in Uganda, and if it works in Ngeta, the same can/should then be emulated by other campuses of UMU and may be other public and private universities. It is UMU's belief and hope that hard work concept for Netta can be incorporated into the Peace, Recovery and Development PIa for the Northern Region. A letter of intent was submitted to the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office on 11th December, 2009. It is our intention to build a strong strategic alliance with government in this matter, and this would be in line with the public-private partnership policy promulgated by government.
