General
Sir Tim Berners-Lee visits Makerere
The hall was filled with students eagerly waiting to at least catch a glimpse of this world famous gentleman, credited with inventing the World Wide Web from its humble beginnings to its current sophisticated nature with arms touching almost every corner of the globe.
The hall was filled with students eagerly waiting to at least catch a glimpse of this world famous gentleman, credited with inventing the World Wide Web from its humble beginnings to its current sophisticated nature with arms touching almost every corner of the globe.
Michael Niyitegeka, Head, Corporate Relations Office at the Faculty of Computing & IT Makerere and emcee for the day welcomed Sir Tim as he’s famously known to Makerere University and thanked the facilitator Stephane Boyera for making the visit possible. He then invited Dr. Idris Rai , Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Computing & IT make a few remarks.
Dr. Idris Rai thanked Sir Tim for making time to come to Uganda and Makerere University in particular. Citing his PhD work, which focused on designing and analyzing mechanisms to support Quality of Service in Edge Routers of IP Networks, he hoped that Sir Tim’s presentation would help everyone present to better appreciate how the World Wide Web operates, concluding by inviting him to deliver his presentation.
Sir Tim thanked everyone present for making time to come and listen to him, especially appreciating that a number of students from different Universities i.e. Makerere, Kyambogo, Nkumba and Gulu were present as well. Launching into the history of the World Wide Web first, in his own words "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the Transmission Control Protocol and domain name system ideas the World Wide Web was created, which ran on the NeXT machine. The specifications of Universal Document Identifiers (UDIs) now called the Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) published on the first server in order to promote wide adoption and discussion"
With the growing need for Web clients for other platforms, browsers such as Erwise, Viola, Cello and Mosaic eventually came on the scene. Then the need for servers to provide examples of WebPages arose, which led to the creation of the first Web server (info.cern.ch). Sir Tim then founded the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org) in 1994, with its base at MIT, which is a neutral open forum where companies and organizations to whom the future of the Web is important come to discuss and to agree on new common computer protocols.
He then talked about The Semantic Web, which is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to "understand" and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.
Sir Tim then went on to answer questions from the gathering, notable among whom, was Prof. James Patrick Mangeni Head, Research Education Network Uganda and an alumni of Sir Tim at Oxford University. Prof. Mangeni thanked Sir Tim for his visit and looked forward with sharing experiences especially with the advent of the undersea fiber cable that will improve bandwidth capacity and foster research.
A vote of thanks moved by Prof. Mangeni signaled the close of the talk and an opportunity for Sir Tim to interact with the Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. Baryamureeba, members of staff and students who had graced the occasion.
Organised by the Makerere Debating Union – a student-led initiative, the Inter-college Debate Tournament was held on 11th and 12th April 2025 with a vision to leave no student behind by nurturing a community of confident, articulate, and visionary leaders who will drive positive change in society. The tournament was held in three preliminary rounds, followed by semi-finals and a grand finale.
The first round covered democracy and youth participation in politics, while the second round covered inequality and wealth distribution, and the third, the ban on export of raw materials. The semi-final round debated apprenticeship for blue-collar jobs, while the grand finale debated national budget allocations for healthcare and education. In the spirit of inclusivity, all colleges, including the Jinja Campus participated in the tournament.
Commenting on the choice of topics, the organisers noted Makerere University as a bastion of academic excellence has a profound responsibility to cultivate the next generation of leaders who will shape the future of our nation. These leaders, they added, ought to be equipped with 21st century skills of self-expression, critical thinking, and problem-solving so as to navigate the complexities of an ever-evolving world.
On the whole, Makerere Inter-college Debates were conceived as a strategic initiative to foster a culture of intellectual curiosity, creativity, and innovation. The Debating Union aims to empower the future leaders by providing a platform for students to engage in respectful discourse, articulate their thoughts, as well as develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Furthermore, the Debates serve as a platform for not only honing the intellectual prowess of students but also cultivating leadership skills, teamwork, and communication abilities that are essential for success in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. It is envisaged that this initiative will have a lasting impact on the lives of students, by exposing them to debates on topical issues that can shape the mindsets of transformative leaders our nation needs.
After a thrilling two days of debate, Daphine Kemigisha and Jibril Ssekandi from the School of Law (SoL) emerged as winners of the Makerere University Inter-college Debate Tournament 2025, while Olara Emmanuel George from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB) was the Public Speech Champion, and Namujuzi Martha Mociita from the College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS) was the Poetry Champion.
The 2025 Tournament was organized by Mayanja Owen and Nkalubo Oprah – 91st Guild Representative Councils (GRCs) of the Debate Union, Akatwijuka Arthur – Chairperson Debate Union, and Debate Union Representatives from colleges. The Uganda National NGO Forum (UNNGOF) partnered with the Debate Union to deliver the 2025 edition.
Addressing students at the award ceremony, UNNGOF’s Mr. Derrick Baluuku encouraged the youth to step out of their comfort zones and think of solutions to inspire change in their communities.
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