Admissions1 min read
Admissions answers move to WhatsApp, in four languages
LEO and Ask Forward now answer in English, Luganda, Swahili and French, with voice input, read-aloud, a low-data mode and an installable offline app.
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News, insight and student stories in one place.
Forward has no alumni, no rankings and no graduate outcomes to report. What it publishes is what it has actually done, dated, plus the thinking behind it.
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One newsroom, several kinds of writing.
University news, insight pieces from the academic team, student stories and dated institutional statements share a single stream. Filter by topic below.
Academic1 min readForward opens an eleventh School: Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Tourism
Ten programmes join the catalogue, taking Forward to 143 published degree and certificate programmes across eleven Schools.
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Technology1 min readAI Oversight Board constituted, with the no-marks rule written down
Mwalimu and LEO now sit under a standing board with a published incident register and a named academic accountable for every behaviour.
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Admissions1 min readIndicative fee schedule published, labelled pending approval
Forward publishes its fee structure, funding routes and payment rules before applications open, with every figure marked pending Council approval.
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Institutional1 min readForward AI Academy opens: short, practical, non-degree AI courses
An open catalogue of AI courses for anyone, separate from the degree catalogue and explicitly outside NCHE degree accreditation.
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AI in the world
What is happening in AI, and what it changes here.
An external reading list gathered from public reporting on 14 September 2026. Every item links to the original publisher. These are not Forward statements, and appearing here is not an endorsement.
Safety and governanceMicrosoft publishes a 'humanist AI code of conduct' after safety concerns
Microsoft set out a code of conduct placing people above automated systems, framed as a response to mounting safety concerns about how AI products behave.
Why it matters here: Forward's own rule sits in the same territory and is already written into the assessment regulations: software never issues a mark.
Safety and governanceGeoffrey Hinton backs a call to slow AI development
Hinton told the ABC there is significant risk in the current pace of development, supporting Anthropic's call for a global slowdown.
Why it matters here: Read alongside the refusal list: Forward teaches AI practice, and it teaches the arguments against building a thing at all.
Safety and governanceLeading AI companies discuss forming their own standards body
Major AI firms have held talks about an industry-run standards organisation, raising the question of who sets the rules and who audits them.
Why it matters here: A governance question students meet directly in the Forward Core: self-regulation, public regulation, and who is accountable when neither holds.
IndustryOpenAI introduces an Agents API for long-running cloud agents
A managed harness for agents that hold context, use tools and coordinate subagents over long-running tasks rather than single prompts.
Why it matters here: The shift from prompting to supervising agents is the skill our AI and Digital Practice Spine assesses across every School.
InfrastructureNvidia plans a major data-centre expansion to meet AI demand
Nvidia is working with Australian partners to build significant additional AI compute capacity as demand continues to outrun supply.
Why it matters here: Compute, power and cooling are engineering and climate problems before they are software ones, which is why they are taught as such here.
ResearchOpenAI publishes a claimed solution to the Navier-Stokes Millennium problem
An internal system produced a proof concerning existence and smoothness for the Navier-Stokes equations, released for review with a written argument.
Why it matters here: Machine-produced mathematics still has to survive human peer review. That verification habit is what our published rubrics train.
IndustryPerplexity puts frontier models in charge of production systems
Perplexity reports using a frontier model to write communications, change software and monitor production, with far fewer human check-ins than before.
Why it matters here: Employers on cooperative-education placements now expect graduates who can audit this work, not just produce it.
Milestone log
Every institution-building step, with its real status.
- CompletedAcademicFounding year
Founding charter and academic model adopted
The governing body adopted the academic model in full: nine Schools, a compulsory Forward Core in every programme, a compulsory twelve-month paid and assessed cooperative-education placement, and a published refusal list naming what the university will not teach.
- CompletedAcademicFounding year
Nine Schools and their departments defined
The full academic architecture was fixed before recruitment opened, including the School of Energy, Climate and Earth Systems. Departments were mapped to the labour-market thesis each School is accountable for, rather than to existing faculty interests.
- In progressAccreditationCurrent
First accreditation wave submitted for twelve programmes
Twelve programmes form the first accreditation wave and are the only programmes accepting applications. The remaining planned programmes are published as placeholders with no entry route, and will not open until their own wave clears review.
- In progressAcademicCurrent
Forward Core assessment rubrics written and moderated
Each of the five Core requirements now has a rubric that is graded inside programme modules rather than bolted on as a separate certificate. Moderation is being run across Schools so a Core grade means the same thing in engineering as it does in the arts.
- In progressCooperative educationCurrent
Cooperative-education employer pipeline under negotiation
Placements must be paid, twelve months long and assessed against the same rubric everywhere, which rules out unpaid internships and shadowing. Because the placement is compulsory, no cohort will be admitted larger than the confirmed placement capacity for that intake.
- In progressCampusCurrent
Phase One teaching core in construction
The Academic Tower, instrumented laboratories, library spine and student services hub are being delivered as one package so that the founding intake does not study on a building site with borrowed rooms.
- In progressAdmissionsCurrent
Applications open for the founding intake
Applications are being accepted for the twelve first-wave programmes. Zero students are enrolled, so every published figure on the accountability page is a live count rather than a projection.
- ScheduledAdmissionsRolling
Timezone-aware information sessions running
Sessions are scheduled in three time bands so applicants in West Africa, East Africa, Europe, the Gulf and the Americas can attend one live rather than watching a recording. Each session covers the Core, the co-op requirement and the refusal list.
- ScheduledCampusAfter the founding intake
The Edge tendered for construction
Design is complete for the Phase Two enterprise and cooperative-education building. Construction is sequenced to follow the founding intake so that teaching capacity is never traded for a showpiece.
Information sessions
Three time bands, so you attend live.
Sessions run in rotation rather than on a single Kampala-only schedule. Each covers the Forward Core, the compulsory twelve-month paid cooperative-education placement, and the refusal list.
Band A
09:00 East Africa Time (UTC+3)
East & Southern Africa, Gulf, South Asia
Focus: Programme scope, Forward Core, entry requirements
Band B
14:00 East Africa Time (UTC+3)
West & Central Africa, Europe, United Kingdom
Focus: Cooperative education, employer expectations, fees
Band C
19:00 East Africa Time (UTC+3)
Americas, Caribbean
Focus: Study permits, timelines, remote and hybrid study