Contact Details:
Uni Gambia
Website:
www.unigambia.gm
MDI Road
Kanifing South
The Gambia
West Africa
Telephone number:
4377198 (Faculty of
Science & Agriculture)
4378815
(Faculty Building)
4372213 (Main
switchboard)
4395065
"
4395062 "
4378769
4378812
4376266 (Professor
Castillo's Residence)
4223791
(Marina Parade, Banjul)
Fax number:
Email:
unigambia@qanet.gm
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Registering as a UTG student:
To register with the college, you must go to the Accounts office in
the Administration building (see “Administration building” map) to
receive the pertinent paperwork which must be subsequently filled out
and returned to the Senior Assistant Registrar’s office. This will be a
group outing during orientation. You must provide two passport-size
photos, one for the record and one for your Student ID card, which you
can retrieve a few weeks later from the Senior Assistant Registrar’s
office.
Choosing classes:
The class schedule will be posted at both the Faculty Building and the
Administration Building (both on MDI Road). Note that the schedule
will be adjusted slightly from its first draft; check the list daily
for updates, especially if your class is listed sans location, time,
and/or professor. Classes are three credits (plus one credit practical
for some science classes) and are generally 1.5 hours long, twice a
week. Suggested class load three classes, or nine credits. See below
for list of possible classes.
Registering for classes:
To register for classes, you simply attend them and ask your professor
to sign your add-drop form, which you will receive upon registration
with the university. When you have gotten all of your professors plus
your academic advisor to sign the form, return it to the Senior
Assistant Registrar’s office. According to the student handbook,
classes can be added and dropped until the fourth scheduled class—as
this time period may vary greatly for each class, the Registrar’s
office is reasonably lenient when it comes to this deadline. A grade
of W (withdrawal) will be awarded past the add-drop period, provided
at least 25% of instruction time remains.
Going to classes:
As you may have already been informed, the UTG has no single, unified
“campus” as typical of standard universities, but consist mostly of
rented buildings at sites sprinkled around the Greater Banjul area.
Four university buildings are in Kanifing on MDI Road: the Faculty
building, the Administration building, YMCA, and MDI (Management
Development Institute). French classes are held at the Alliance
Franco-Gambienne near Westfield, on Kairaba Avenue; a few classes are
held in Banjul at the Nursing School and in Brikama at Gambia College.
(Click on links for maps of these buildings/areas)
Classes may or may not begin the week classes officially begin. Being
the only student in your first class of the semester does not
necessarily mean you are in the wrong classroom—Gambian professors as
well as students are usually slow to start the semester due to
administration and transportation problems.
YMCA1/YMCA2: This denotes classes held at the Kanifing YMCA, in
conference rooms number one and two, located above the restaurant on
the second and third floors respectively. The YMCA also has a computer
lab, open to students by special arrangement
KJ: Classes labelled KJ (short for Kal Jawara Memorial Block) are held
at the MDI, the namesake for the road on which it is located.
Conference: Classes marked Conference are held in the Conference room
in the Administration building.
“Faculty” is on the first floor of the Faculty building, entered from
the left hallway.
The student Computer Lab is in the Administration building, in the
hallway past the Accounting and Registrar offices.
Senate: This denotes the room where Senate meetings are held, on the
second floor of the Faculty building, approached from the left hallway
Serekunda/Westfield:
ALL. FRAN. GAM: This is short for Alliance Franco-Gambienne, located
on Kairaba Avenue, near Westfield junction. (Note that "Alliance" is
pronounced the French way, AL-ee-onts). There are three main options
for getting yourself there from the hotel—shared taxi, walking, and
biking. If you elect to go by shared taxi, take transport towards
Westfield for about $0.15. Plan accordingly—as the Alliance is fairly
far down Kairaba, this journey can take anywhere from five to fifteen
minutes, depending on stops and traffic. When you see Latrikunda
Senior Secondary School on the right-hand side of the road, know that
you are getting close; prepare to alight when the Alliance’s red and
white sign pops into view, also on the right. (See “Location of
Alliance Franco-Gambienne on Kairaba Avenue” map)
Walking will take quite some time; with a bike the trip will take
about 15-20 minutes, but beware of the dangers of morning and midday
traffic on the short stretch of Kairaba. The best route to take is
following MDI Road to its end, taking a right and following Post
Office Road to its end, and taking a left onto Kairaba Avenue, where
the Alliance is about 2 minutes up the road, on your right.
Inside the Alliance, several classrooms are used for university
classes. (See “Alliance Franco-Gambienne” map). They will most likely
be held in the classrooms that are located to the left of the lobby
(if the front entrance is at your back).
Banjul/Brikama:
Some classes (mostly science-based courses) are taught at the School
of Nursing (Banjul) and Gambia College (Brikama). The university
currently has one working bus that offers transport from Kanifing to
the classes in Banjul and Brikama. When the course schedule is
completed, the Transportation Committee will prepare a bus schedule
and post it on the bulletin board at the Administration Building. The
bus can hold up to twenty-two students and costs about $0.10 for each
one-way journey. The alternate transportation for each venue (taxi)
will be explained in detail below.
BANJUL: Classes in Banjul are held at the School of Nursing, in
the auditorium. By bush taxi, catch a van to Banjul; get off at
the last stop in Banjul and use the “Downtown Banjul” map to
guide you in walking to the School of Nursing. (The garage on
this map is denoted by a picture of a taxi.)
BRIKAMA: Classes marked Brikama are held at Gambia College;
these are usually laboratory classes. Take a bush taxi to
Westfield, from there find a taxi going to Brikama (see also
Taxi). You will see a sign for Gambia College on your right,
where you should alight.
Faculty/staff offices:
Due to the limited resources of the university, most lecturers
do not have offices. For information on how to contact them,
visit the appropriate Faculty Officer who can usually provide
you with a home or mobile number. The locations of the offices
are as follows:
HUMANITIES/SOCIAL SCIENCE: Second floor of the Faculty Building
ECONOMICS/MANAGEMENT: Library (see “Resources” below)
SCIENCE/AGRICULTURE: Third floor of the Faculty Building
MEDICINE/ALLIED HEALTH: Offices are located at the School of
Nursing and Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital, both in Banjul.
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF: Located in the Administration Building.
This includes the Registrar, Accountant, Personnel Officer, and
the Vice Chancellor. An exception is the Deputy Vice Chancellor,
who doubles as the Dean of Humanities/Social Sciences and has an
office on the second floor of the Faculty Building.
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Grading system:
Grading at the UTG is calculated as follows:
57-59%
|
C+ |
2.3 |
|
90-100% |
A+ |
4.3 |
54-56% |
C |
2.0 |
80-89% |
A
|
4.0 |
50-53% |
C- |
1.7 |
70-79% |
A- |
3.7 |
40-49% |
D |
1.0 |
67-69% |
B+ |
3.3 |
0-39% |
F |
0.0 |
64-66% |
B
|
3.0 |
Withdrawal |
W |
0.0 |
60-63% |
B-
|
2.7 |
Final grades are released once they have been through a thorough
verification process:
1. The professor submits a form containing each student’s grade
for each test/assignment (usually about 50% of the grade), the
final exam grade (also about 50% of the grade), the calculated
percentage out of 100%, and the equivalent final grade.
2. The grades are sent to the Senate for review
A. All final percentages/grades are recalculated to ensure no
mathematical error was made by the professor.
B. The Senate looks at the grade distribution, keeping an eye
out for seemingly skewed results, i.e. an outstanding number of
A+’s or a remarkable number of failures. If all seems well, the
grade report is sent to the registrar to be officially entered
on the student’s record.
3. On rare occasions, when the grade distribution seems
questionable or unusual, the grade report is sent for review by
the appropriate faculty board, who attempt to determine the
reason for the unlikely allotment of grades. Assignments and
tests will be reviewed to see if they were appropriate for the
class and if they were justly marked. The faculty board may
elect to make grade revisions if deemed necessary. Finally, the
reviewed and possibly adjusted grade report is sent back to the
Senate for approval. If approved, it is sent to the Registrar
for documentation.
4. As the grading system is a rather long process, UTG students
can expect final grades by August or September; you can expect.
Final exams:
Final exams are held starting a few days after the official end
of classes, usually lasting for a week. They are two hours long
and in most cases count for 50% of the grade. As the end of the
semester nears, the exam schedule will be posted at the
Administration and Faculty buildings. If extenuating
circumstances prevent you from taking an exam (such as an
unchangeable a flight back to America), an earlier sitting must
be arranged by your professor and approved by the Dean of the
appropriate faculty. In this case, it is best to ask for
assistance from your academic coordinator.
Resources:
Textbooks are usually not required for classes; for most course
readings, lecturers will photocopy either selections or entire
texts. These must be picked up and paid for by each student from
the Accountant in the Administration Building. Costs can range
from about $0.50 to $5.00 per packet. Sometimes a lecturer will
assign a textbook that is available on a loan from the
university; you must also retrieve these books from the
Accountant. On occasion, students can sign up to order various
textbooks for supplementary reading (in the spring semester of
2004 the books arrived shortly before the semester’s end).
For research assignments, there are computers with internet
connection (a very slow internet connection) at the
Administration building, for exclusive use by UTG students. (See
also Internet). The University library has some useful
books—though as most were donated by overseas universities, many
are outdated. The University Library is located off Kairaba
Avenue, well marked by a series of signs bearing arrows (number
69 on “Bakau to Serekunda area” map); one book may be taken out
for a maximum of two weeks provided you present your UTG
identification card. The National Library in Banjul is better
stocked; up to two books can be borrowed for up to two weeks,
pending the one-time payment of about $2.15 for a membership.
The National Library is located on the road just before Arch-22.
Alight from the bush taxi at the footbridge, and turn right on
the road in front of you (Gambia High School is located on the
corner). The library located ahead on the left-hand side of the
road.
Courses available:
As the University is constantly developing, course offerings
change each year. New classes are offered each semester and some
classes are not offered regularly due to lack of professors
and/or space. You will likely see from 120 to 150 classes appear
on the class schedule, which during registration will be posted
on the bulletin board of the Faculty building (see "Faculty
building" map). You can also ask your academic coordinator for
access to a copy of the latest course catalogue, though not all
classes listed will be offered the semester you are attending.
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