By Julius Mugaga Tukacungurwa/Umoja Standard.
Kampala, Uganda: While addressing the congregation on the last day of the 73rd Graduation of Makerere University, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Nawangwe reckoned that their strategic goal is to transform into a more research-led and more research-intensive University.
He revealed that the Research and Innovations Fund, that was made possible through Uganda’s government grant of UGX 30 billion annually has transformed Makerere tremendously, with very many innovations in agriculture and food security, health, engineering, education, veterinary medicine, artificial intelligence, economics and business management, and the social sciences that are already changing the lives of our people.
He says researchers from the two colleges graduating today are part of research-intensive at Makerere and are making a tremendous contribution in research and community outreach. He added that College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) continues to conduct cutting edge research in nanotechnology and its use in the manufacture of medicines and vaccines and other engineering products.
“The College is providing leadership in research in renewable energy and alternative sanitation and water purification methods. Through the PLUS Alliance, a consortium of top research universities in Europe, the United States, Africa and Australia, of which Makerere is a member, the College has embarked on a PhD in Engineering by research and all the participating universities have accepted to se the Makerere PhD for all their students”. Said Prof. Nawangwe.
He highlighted that the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) is experiencing a vibrant revival in research. ‘Through the support of the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the College is training the next generation of researchers at PhD level’.
He said that researchers from CHUSS actively participated in finding solutions to the effects of COVID-19 in the education system and made a number of important policy proposals and that the College has submitted a comprehensive memorandum to the Education Review Commission.
Prof. Ezra Suruma- the Chancellor of Makerere University while giving his remarks, that the third National Development Plan (NDPIII) considers that weak school management, limited teacher capacity, absence of school feeding, limited parental/community participation, low financing and poor assessment methods are worse.
It is therefore gratifying that some of today’s doctoral candidates’ work has addressed Primary education. I found the work by Mr. Kamya Bazilio very helpful and promising. He studied the “Contribution of Primary Education Policy Reforms in The Development of Uganda from 1894-2019”.
His recommendations that government should increase funding for efforts aimed at reviewing curriculum in relation to the required skills for human capital development as well as increase the budget for primary education for improved education service delivery are very important for that important sector.
Statistics indicate that a total of 13,221 graduated and of these, 6,809 are female constituting to 52% and 6,412 are male constituting to 48% at the 73rd Graduation Ceremony.
A total of 102 PhD students, 1,378 Master’s students, 108 postgraduate diploma and 35 undergraduate have also graduated.