General
World Veterinary Day highlights VETMED’s diversity
Whereas Rakai district will play host to the main celebrations tomorrow Saturday 24th April 2010, the Veterinary fraternity descended upon their cradle: The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on 22nd April 2010, to give back to the community that nurtured them.
Whereas Rakai district will play host to the main celebrations tomorrow Saturday 24th April 2010, the Veterinary fraternity descended upon their cradle: The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on 22nd April 2010, to give back to the community that nurtured them.
This lecture was part of the Vet Week activities that culminated into the World Veterinary Day on 24th April 2010. This public lecture was hosted at The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in recognition of the partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, the Uganda Veterinary Association and the private sector. This partnership is aimed at finding solutions to the challenges facing Uganda's Animal Industry through research-driven community development collaborative initiatives.
Keeping in line with the theme of the week “One World, One Health: more cooperation between veterinarians and physicians” panelist after panelist took time off to make their presentation on topical issues.
Dr. Waiswa kicked off the proceedings with interventions made by the Stamp out Sleeping Sickness (SOS) campaign: A public private partnership launched in Kampala in October 2006. This partnership was formed in response to an emergency situation arising in a number of districts in Northern Uganda where the two strains of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) – also known as “sleeping sickness”- threaten to converge. This could have a catastrophic effect for the already stretched local health services. He cited erratic cattle movement irregular spraying of animals in these areas as proponents to the spread of this disease.
Offering the Wildlife perspective, Dr. Andrew Seguya, Executive Director Uganda Wildlife Education 
Center (UWEC) made his presentation on how veterinary and medical intervention for a man trapped chimpanzee in Rwensama Forest helped restore its life. Hounded by the diminishing forest cover, the chimpanzees are forced to raid crops in the community gardens, which unfortunately often lead them to be caught, maimed or even killed by the mantraps. Dr. Seguya however shared a success story of how one chimp Amaanyi, whose limb had been caught in mantrap was evacuated to UWEC for an amputation and ensuing rehabilitation. He paid special tribute to partners like the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda for their active support towards chimp conservation.
“Why do you think God would liken himself to an eagle? Or a lion? It means he loves them! So don’t you think God is a Veterinarian?” questioned Dr. Kansiime Michael as enticed and engaged the 
audience. Dr. Kansiime a lecturer at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and General Secretary of the Uganda Christian Veterinary Mission chose a spiritual approach as he presented his topic “Animals and Humans. One World, one Health. The Bible View.” Obviously distressed by scenes of cruelty meted out animals in the previous presentation “Those people depicted laying traps and killing animals are sinners and will never enter the kindom of heaven” he charged on. He concluded his presentation by challenging all present to consider animals as they strove for better living conditions “ As Physicians and Veterinarians, we are custodians of health for humans and animals, lets work together for the better of both species because no amount of strength will outdo the plan of God and separate the two.”
Dr. Jeanne Muhindo from the National Pharmacovigilance Center of the National Drug Authority revealed the realization by the Authority to setup a center to monitor safety and quality of medicines on the market. Hence Veterinary pharmacovigilance is the management of the detection and investigation of the clinical effects of the veterinary medicinal products, mainly aimed at the safety and efficacy in animals, the safety in people and the environment exposed to these products. Dr. Muhindo went on to shock the audience when she stated “People are using animal drugs to treat human illnesses like syphilis!” She therefore stressed the need for analysis and dissemination of the information needed to improve the prescription, dispensing, provision and regulation of drugs to help avert Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) as a result of misuse and abuse of drugs.
A Senior Medical Officer in-charge of HAT in the Ministry of Health, Dr Charles Wamboga wound up the lecture by giving his talk on collaboration between the Ministry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and SOS. Citing the 60million people in sub-saharan Africa who are at risk of acquiring HAT, he justified the need for this collaboration especially in Uganda, which is the only country where both acute and chronic strains of the disease exist. Dr. Wamboga paid special tribute to the Management and Students of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, who helped to bring down the epidemic in 2006; and the University of Edinburgh (UK) for the collaborative training offered.
Dr. Andrew Seguya's presentation here
Dr. Kansiime Michael's presentation here
Dr. Jeanne Muhindo's presentation here
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) has in collaboration with Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors.
Participants were academic staff from two colleges namely, College of Engineering, Art and Design (CEDAT) and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).
The three-day training that took place at the Telepresence Centre, Senate Building ended on Friday 20thJune 2025.
In his closing remarks to the participants, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “This is the first cohort we are working together with the Center for Teaching and Learning to put together continuous professional development Program so that we are able to enforce the new teaching and learning policy.”
He said that before lecturers are allocated students for supervision, they must first go through this form of formal teaching and learning training to equip them thoroughly with certification required of supervision of graduate students.
“We are coming up with process to ensure that the certificates earned by participants allow you to supervise graduate students. This is the direction of the university and we must ensure that such trainings are concluded and completed successfully by all participants”, Prof. Kikooma.
“We can only have you certified upon completing all the exercises in the training process. This is when you will be eligible to receive the work load for supervision”, He added.
“This training of Supervisors is going to be continuous so that all academic staff in colleges and schools are equipped. This first cohort is going to be our building block to the future trainings in the colleges.”
With such capacity building trainings, Prof. Kikooma said that the university is on the right path to achieving its targets in the new strategic plan of increasing the number of graduate students while progressively reducing the under graduate students.
He further hinted that, “We are in the process of writing a curriculum on this, which will be presented for approval before it is rolled out.”
He echoed all participants to share the knowledge they have acquired adding, “Share all you have learnt, do not keep it. Be open minded, have proper communication channels and the sky will be the limit for you.”
Dr. Robinah N. Kulabako, The Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CEDAT welcomed the training adding, “This training is very pertinent. I have had the opportunity to supervise Masters and PhD students for over 15 years and I must say that the need to be subjected to this training cannot be over emphasized because there is need to learn, unlearn and relearn many aspects involved in the supervision process.”
She added, “We are moving towards knowledge-based supervision rather than experience-based supervision. This means we must be informed and equipped to be able to advise, guide and mentor to be able to lead a successful supervision journey for both supervisor and supervisee.”
Dr. Andrew Gilbert Were – a lecturer at CEDAT and a participant said, “It is important that all supervisors of graduate students receive this certification from Makerere University through a systematic training process that enables them to attain diverse skills to facilitate learning of graduate students from diverse cultures and with unique set of circumstances.”
“This training is long overdue. In fact, it was an oversight that we could be allowed to supervise students without undergoing supervisors’ training.”
Dr. Dorothy Ssebowa, The Director Centre for Teaching and Learning support- CEES said, “The training this time round has had a mix of early career professionals including Lecturers, Supervisors and Professors share experiences. We have learnt a lot more from experienced supervisors who have shared practices on how they have done supervision over the years.”
“The knowledge and experience-based approaches have made this collaboration very active, interactive and learner centered which has resulted into a collaborative learning from the interdisciplinarity of staff from CEDAT and CAES. The issue now is to continue with professional development across all levels.” She added.
The Makerere University Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors. This activity was supported by the iCARTA – Institutionalization of Advanced Research Training in Africa, a NORHED II Project at Makerere University.
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