Understanding the online PUJAB form system
Unlike the previous years, this years PUJAB forms shall be filled online. PUJAB means Public Universities Joint Admissions Board (PUJAB), and it is responsible to conducting students’ admissions for government sponsorship. All students sitting for UACE exams, and interested in being admitted on government sponsorship (or scholarship) for undergraduate studies must fill and submit PUJAB forms.
These new online PUJAB application system in Uganda, launched by Makerere University for the 2025/2026 academic year, aims to streamline the process for students seeking government-sponsored spots in public universities and tertiary institutions. This transition to an online system uses the Academic Management Information System (ACMIS) of Makerere University, and is accessible through a dedicated portal, to simplify data entry and reduce manual handling of applications. This will significantly reduce the errors and time duration of whole process.
It should be noted that each year, the government of Uganda sponsors about 4,000 students at the different public universities. Out of these, 3,000 are admitted under the national merit scheme, while the remaining 1,000 fall under the district quota and sports scheme.
Since the early 1990s, PUJAB (or JB) forms as they are usually called, have been filed manually. The process involves sending some one to Kampala, usually the exams masters/mistress, who will pay for the number of forms needed, and later on collect them from Makerere University, senate building. Thereafter, the forms are brought to school, and given to students who have paid, together with the guide that contains the list of eligible study programmes.
This 4-page form is filled by the student, and returned back to school. The school must again send someone to return the filled forms to Makerere University. The most difficult aspect in filling the PUJAB form is getting the appropriate study programmes or course to fill in. Six programmes are needed are national merit and four under district quota. Additionally, one should also add four more study programmes for diploma study programmes in institutions such as UTCs or UCCs. However, it is not mandatory to fill all the sections for the study programmes. Some, for example fill only district quota, and diploma courses, or only national merit and district quota.
Other difficult thing to do is gathering signatures and stamps from the area Local Council 1 chairperson, LC3 chairperson or division mayor and the headteacher. This requires money and considerable time.
On the online system that shall be used this year, I anticipate that the same provisions shall remain. In 2022, this online system was also used, and it proved quite effective. You should recall that in 2021, there’s no UACE & UCE exams, and yet government had to award these scholarships. This system was hastily designed and released for use.
All in all, this new system will actually help students fill the PUJAB form faster, from there respective locations. You have to make sure the school has all the necessary information. The system is designed in such a way that, it is the school to login and register students. Like for my case, I have obtained login details for Lira Town College. The form for getting the login details is available on the portal home page
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