Study abroad brings several advantages to students, universities, countries, and academe. However, across countries with incongruent preuniversity education structures, some students are denied admission to foreign universities, due to gaps in their admissibility. Some institutions offer university bridging programs, to enhance the admissibility of these students to the required level. Nonetheless, the efficacy of these programs, in closing the competence gap between their attendees and conventional enrolees, is the subject of much controversy-albeit neither their proponents nor critics have provided empirical evidence to support their side of the argument. To plug this gap, this study examined the academic performance differentials between students enrolled through the programs and those admitted through conventional routes, taking the case of Kampala International University. The findings were that, on the whole, there is no significant difference between the two, meaning that the programs are effective in preparing their attendees for university education.

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Compared to their counterparts in wealthier nations, managers and front-line health care workers in non-industrialised countries make more limited use of information technology to assist their decision-making. This is particularly true in conflict-affected countries, which tend to be even poorer, and have a greater scarcity of infrastructure and qualified personnel, than other developing countries. At the same time, more stakeholders are recognising the potential of electronic information management in resource-poor settings, as well as the value of investing in conflict-affected countries more generally. We present here the experience of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) with the use of handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) for health surveys in conflict-affected subSaharan African countries, and discuss lessons learned and potential for further development of this tool. The use of PDAs for surveys has lowered costs, made data available for analysis much faster, and reduced errors. Conflict-specific obstacles, such as insecurity, have not proven to be a significant barrier to PDA use in practice. There have also been limitations. Using PDAs requires survey managers to have some technical proficiency, and PDAs are less helpful for qualitative surveys. Overall, the experience has been positive, and we have found PDAs to be equally appropriate in conflict-affected countries as in other settings. We recommend taking several steps to prevent problems and extend benefits, including using checklists and memory cards to simplify the process, and taking advantage of the same PDAs for other purposes beyond surveys, including supervision, quality assurance, and routine data entry. Finally, it is important to note that PDA use does not dispense survey organisers from the usual principles of good survey implementation.

This study examined the readiness of Kampala International University Doctoral Students for open and distance education and related this readiness to gender, income and perceived user friendliness of ICT. Using a self-administered questionnaire, data were collected from 43 of these students and analysed using means, t-test and correlation analyses. The findings were that there is relationship between each of gender, income and perceived user friendliness of ICT and readiness for open and distance learning. However, only the relationship between perceived user friendliness of ICT and the said readiness was found to be statistically significant. Therefore, it was concluded that, if they are to be ready for open and distance education, the students deserve equal encouragement, exposure and training with respect to the use of ICT, notwithstanding their gender and income differentials.