Towards a Health-Promoting Campus: nstitutional Complexities in Communicating Health Information in Uganda’s Higher Education Sector

Communication to promote health behaviour in diverse settings has increasingly become essential due to the growing number of global health crises. Education institutions, as settings, appear to be unlikely locations for promoting health, despite that education goals are intrinsically enabled through good health.

Communication to promote health behaviour in diverse settings has increasingly become essential due to the growing number of global health crises. Education institutions, as settings, appear to be unlikely locations for promoting health, despite that education goals are intrinsically enabled through good health. In fact, universities are now considered an important setting for health and its promotion to advance both education and health goals. However, actual practice is rare in sub-Saharan African countries, where health-promoting universities have been slow to emerge and to adopt significant health promotion values. A qualitative study involving primary and secondary sources of data was conducted, which revealed several barriers that constrain the implementation of health education and promotion within university settings in Uganda. These challenges were mostly institutional and require a shift in policies and practice for the education sector to fully embrace health promotion in university functions, routines and processes.