Academic Staff Welfare and the Implementation of Competency-Based Curricula in Ugandan Universities

Abstract

The global transition toward Competency-Based Curricula (CBC) in higher education represents a fundamental reorientation from knowledge transmission to demonstrable skill application. Ugandan universities, guided by the National Council for Higher Education, have been mandated to fully transition to competence-based learning by the 2027/2028 academic year. However, the success of this ambitious reform depends critically on the human infrastructure tasked with its implementation: academic staff. This conceptual review examines the relationship between academic staff welfare and CBC implementation readiness in Ugandan universities. Drawing on Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, the study synthesizes evidence from existing literature to demonstrate that poor remuneration, job insecurity, excessive workloads, and inadequate professional development act as powerful hygiene factors that demotivate faculty and directly undermine the pedagogical shifts required for CBC. The review identifies specific welfare dimensions that most significantly affect CBC readiness and proposes a conceptual framework linking welfare conditions to implementation outcomes. The analysis concludes that without strategic investment in holistic academic staff welfare—financial, professional, and psychological—CBC implementation in Uganda will remain a symbolic policy exercise rather than a transformative reality. This review contributes to the literature on higher education reform in developing contexts by foregrounding the often-neglected human factor in curriculum change and provides evidence-based recommendations for integrating staff welfare into national CBC implementation strategies.