Education is a cornerstone of China’s investment to Uganda

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OPINION

By Joshua Kingdom

“In order to further strengthen the mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of China and Uganda, and to further enrich the contents of the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership between China and Uganda, the Chinese Embassy in Uganda welcomes citizens of Uganda to apply for the 2025/26 Chinese Government Scholarship.” This statement appeared in a call issued on the Chinese Embassy website in October 2024, and last Friday, the institution fulfilled its word as Ambassador Zhang Lizhong flagged off the successful thirty-nine students that will now go on to study at different Universities in China.

These scholarships are an annual programme courtesy of the China Scholarship Council targeted at students who hail from countries other than China (of which Uganda is among) wishing to study at any of the two hundred seventy partner universities. Attaining this opportunity is very prestigious as it comes with a coverage of all tuition, a monthly stipend, plus plane tickets to China as well as for the return journey upon completion of one’s degree. This window is open for those interested in Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate of Philosophy studies.

The arrangement is part of a long-standing tradition of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) investing in education in Uganda that goes as far back as the 80s. A related contemporary example is the Chinese Embassy Scholarship Project at Makerere University (Mak) that has been awarding checks of UGX. 2,800,000 a semester to learners from across several departments since the 2018/2019 academic year.

Moreover, the Chinese business community in the country has heavily invested in the education of Ugandans, too. As recent as May this year, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation awarded scholarships to three hundred students in the districts of Hoima and Kikuube at the levels of Primary school, Secondary school, and University in continuation of a corporate social responsibility campaign that it has carried out for more than a decade. The totality of these and more initiatives points to a commitment by PRC to contributing towards real progress in the country for as it is understood in Economics, education is one of the key indicators of economic development.

This owes to the fact that a skilled labour force harnesses the other factors of production in more and more innovative ways. Additionally, an educated populace reinforces conditions that indirectly bring about growth. By earning more, for example, a large consumption base emerges, which in turn attracts investment, thereby creating more jobs. A well-studied country equally guarantees proper service delivery and the advantages that accrue thereto. Take proper healthcare; it helps ensure that people are in good physical and mental conditions, hence they become more productive.

What is more, is that China is educating Ugandans in a quality way, an attribute necessary for the realisation of the outcomes we just listed. As a 2025 World Bank study has indicated, there is a lot of disillusionment, especially in developing nations, over the fact that the increase in education levels has not translated into improved standards of living as initially envisaged, precisely because skills transfer remains a big impediment in the curricula modalities of these countries.

In contrast, obtaining one’s degree in Beijing or any of the locales in China comes with the said ingredient. As a matter of fact, thirty of the Universities that the students going to China study at are ranked among the world’s top five hundred, including Tsinghua and Peking, which come twelfth and thirteenth per the Times Higher Education rankings.

For context, only one Ugandan University (Mak) appears in the world’s first six hundred. But it is not just that the individuals who go to these institutions attain better education; some of them get to pursue cutting-edge courses that are not offered anywhere in Uganda. Two of these are Artificial Intelligence-related degrees, as well as those concerning the construction of hi-tech bridges.

It is not surprising, then, that many alumni of these ventures have gone on to contribute significantly to different sectors of our economy upon their return. Indeed, Ambassador Lizhong affirmed that previous beneficiaries of the embassy’s scheme have gone on to become leaders in business, government, and academia, among other spheres of influence in his remarks to this year’s batch of scholarship awardees.

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre