Internationalisation at Home: Reimagining Global Learning Opportunities in Ugandan Universities

The traditional model of internationalisation in higher education relies heavily on physical cross-border mobility. This structure inherently excludes the vast majority of students in developing countries due to financial challenges, visa restrictions, and systemic global inequalities. This study examines the implementation of Internationalisation at Home (IaH) as a strategic framework to democratise and reimagine global learning opportunities within Ugandan higher education, using Makerere University as an institutional case study. Guided by a qualitative exploratory single-case study design, this research utilised document analysis of institutional policies, direct observation of campus digital infrastructure, and semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 18 participants, including senior university administrators, academic deans, senior faculty members, and student leaders. Empirical saturation was achieved at 18 participants. The findings reveal that while Makerere University’s strategic plans highlight global engagement, actual practices remain fragmented, elite-centric, and dependent on outbound physical mobility. Implementation is restricted by rigid curricular approval processes, weak technological infrastructure, high bandwidth costs, low faculty digital literacy, and a persistent marginalisation of indigenous knowledge systems. The study concludes that the current mobility-dependent approach fails to provide equitable global competencies to the domestic student majority, creating an educational gap between a mobile elite and a non-mobile majority. The study recommends that the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) establish national IaH quality assurance guidelines and credit-transfer structures for virtual exchanges. It further recommends that universities implement systemic curricular audits to integrate Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and formally validate localised epistemologies. This creates a balanced, decolonised, and globally responsive educational ecosystem