Assessing East Africa Leading Universities' Adherence to Regional and Global Computer Science Curriculum Guidelines

Authors

Jonathan Mwaura, Northeastern University, United States

Leonard Peter Binamungu, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Engineer Bainomugisha, Makerere University, Uganda

Published in

IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings

ISSN: 2576-8581

ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.HVAD4125

Publisher

IST-Africa Institute and IIMC International Information Management Corporation Ltd

Published in Ireland

Abstract

Established universities often lead regional efforts in curriculum innovation and the adoption of emerging academic standards. In East Africa, this trend is exemplified by Makerere University-the region's oldest-alongside the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, and the University of Dar es Salaam. This paper examines how the undergraduate computer science programs at these institutions align with the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) benchmarks and how they compare with the recently introduced global standards outlined in CS2023. The findings reveal strong convergence between the current Computer Science (CS) programs and CS2023, notable divergence between CS2023 and the IUCEA benchmarks, and statistically significant differences across several institutional programs. The paper demonstrates how CS programs can be systematically mapped to CS2023 standards and how regional coordination can be achieved.

Keywords

CS2023 Computer Science Benchmark, IUCEA Benchmark for CS, CS curricula, Knowledge Areas, Knowledge Units, Competence based models

Cite this paper

J. Mwaura, L.P. Binamungu and E. Bainomugisha (2026) "Assessing East Africa Leading Universities' Adherence to Regional and Global Computer Science Curriculum Guidelines", IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings, Miriam Cunningham and Paul Cunningham (Eds), IST-Africa Institute and IIMC, 2026, ISSN: 2576-8581, ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2, https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.HVAD4125

Access Paper

Click here to access this paper

IST-Africa Community Members can download papers by logging into their existing account.

If you wish to become a member of IST-Africa Community, please register your profile and you will then receive login details which you can use to access the papers.

Access to papers in the IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings is for INDIVIDUAL USE only. Neither the Conference Proceedings (or individual double blind peer reviewed papers) are to be included in any public or institutional repository or processed in the context of any AI tool or large language model without prior written permission from the Publishers.

While the IST-Africa Institute and IIMC retain copyright of the Conference Proceedings, each author retains copyright to their individual paper. No paper or part thereof may be reproduced without the written permission of both the Conference Proceedings Publishers and appropriate author(s).