Higher Education Response to COVID-19 in Uganda: Regulatory Tools and Adaptive Institutions

Abstract This chapter investigates responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing academic practices from the perspectives of both the system (regulatory body) and the institutions (adaptations of different institutional categories), hence focusing on the interplay between the macro- and meso-level elements in the context of higher education (HE) in Uganda. Given the complexity of COVID-19 as an external shock, and its related effects, different higher education institutions (HEIs) are rethinking existing academic practices. A set of new, regulatory nation-wide requirements, such as the Open/Online, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) guidelines, were enacted by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), the HE regulator in Uganda. HEIs have responded to these policy measures, inter alia, by adopting new policies and devising new structural arrangements, yet major tensions and challenges remain.