Institute of African Culture Science and Technology (IACST)
IACST is a semi-autonomous institute established under Universal/Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU) in the year 2024.
About IACST
The Institute was established to bridge the gaps in Africa’s culture, science and technology sectors emphasising the importance of indigenous cultures, science, knowledge, innovations and community-driven development. Areas like African herbal medicine and traditional/local/ organic foods are not given enough focus in the education systems. Thus, the Institute will address the gaps in the African education such as lack of standardization in research, documentation, and innovations to harness Africa’s rich indigenous knowledge and technologies to solve local and global problems.
To counteract the above limitations, IASCT is set up to create awareness and promote existing African culture, science and technology; undertake research and innovation, engage in business development and offer qualifications ranging from certificate, diplomas to degrees in different areas of African culture, science and technology.
The Institute responds to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals plea of leaving no one behind. It mitigates all forms of discrimination and exclusion in the conventional education systems that undermine the potential of individuals. It is a pan-African institute, whose satellite centres/campuses are in different countries of Africa. It uses distributed-learning and is an open university where students are recruited into the university in Uganda but study in any study Centres/Campuses within their own country or in a country of their choice. It is flexible and inclusive and it supports the students to enroll and get a qualification recognised globally. Evaluation and recognition of prior learning for credit accumulation and transfer is a big part of the IACST education system.