Computer Science Education in Selected Countries from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Undergraduate CSE in Uganda started in the late 1990s. Before then, CS was embedded as a subject or an area of specialization in other disciplines, including basic sciences, engineering, mathematics, and statistics. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, CS started emerging as a discipline with a distinct degree program. According to the National Council of Higher Education [47], a body responsible for the regulation of higher education in Uganda, 28 institutions are offering dedicated undergraduate degree programs in CS, out of over 1,600 undergraduate degree programs as of 2023. However, there are other computing-related and emerging programs including Software Engineering, Information Systems, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, Business Computing and Computer Security. Until the late 2000s, CSE was limited to a few institutions such as Makerere University [30] the oldest and largest University in the country, and Mbarara University of Science and Technology [33]. As the number of new public and private institutions has grown, so has the number of undergraduate degree programs across the different regions in the country.