General

First Makerere Workshop on Social Systems & Computation

Published

16 years ago

November 29, 2010

Summary Top researchers from Northwestern University (Chicago), University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and Makerere (Kampala) are teaming up to offer a workshop on cutting-edge methods for computational modeling of social systems, algorithm design, and machine learning. The sessions will take place between December 3rd and 10th, and there is no cost for attendance; however, registration is mandatory.

Summary Top researchers from Northwestern University (Chicago), University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and Makerere (Kampala) are teaming up to offer a workshop on cutting-edge methods for computational modeling of social systems, algorithm design, and machine learning. The sessions will take place between December 3rd and 10th, and there is no cost for attendance; however, registration is mandatory.

Attendance is limited to academic staff working at a Ugandan university; students doing research in related areas may also be given special permission to attend if space permits. Participants will have the opportunity to publish papers in official, reviewed workshop proceedings at a later date. A certificate of completion will be provided to participants who attend at least two thirds of workshop sessions.

Overview Traditionally, computer science has viewed data as coming from either an adversarial source or from nature itself, giving rise to worst-case and average-case design and analysis of optimization algorithms. In recent years with the advent of modern technologies like the Internet, it has become increasingly apparent that neither of these assumptions reflects reality. Data is neither adversarial nor average, but rather inputs to algorithms are constructed by a diverse set of self-interested agents in an economy, all aiming to maximize their own happiness. Thus the raw data is often not available to an algorithm designer, but must be solicited from the agents–that is, the designer faces an economic constraint. The primary goal of this workshop is to explore the implications of this observation. We will study the performance of algorithms in the presence of utility-maximizing agents and ask whether alternate designs might create incentives for agents to act more optimally. Simultaneously, we will look at other more traditional optimization problems such as approximation and learning and techniques to solve them, pointing out that these may often be leveraged to solve issues in the economic setting.

Related Research Areas Computer Science Theory; Artificial Intelligence; Economics; Business

Format The workshop will consist of six 3-hour lectures, plus meal/breakout sessions for informal research discussion. Spaces are strictly limited, and attendees must pre-register. We will aim to select topics and session times that are best for our participants. To register, and to indicate your preferences for topics and dates, please complete the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WWGMKZG.

List of Candidate Topics The workshop will consist of up to six of the following twelve topics.

Introduction to Game Theory
Game theory is the mathematical study of interaction among independent, self-interested agents. It has been applied to disciplines as diverse as economics, political science, biology, psychology, linguistics—and computer science. This tutorial will introduce what has become the dominant branch of game theory, called noncooperative game theory, and will specifically describe normal-form games, a canonical representation in this discipline. The tutorial will be motivated by the question: "In a strategic interaction, what joint outcomes make sense?"

Voting Theory
Voting (or "Social Choice") theory adopts a“designer perspective” to multiagent systems, asking what rules should be put in place by the authority (the “designer”) orchestrating a set of agents. Specifically, how should a central authority pool the preferences of different agents so as to best reflect the wishes of the population as a whole? (Contrast this with Game Theory, whichadopts what might be called the “agent perspective”: its focus is on making statements about how agents should or would act in a given situation.) This tutorial will describe famous voting rules, show problems with them, and explain Arrow's famous impossibility result.

Mechanism Design and Auctions
Social choice theory is nonstrategic: it takes the preferences of agents as given, and investigates ways in which they can be aggregated. But of course those preferences are usually not known. Instead, agents must be asked to declare them, which they may do dishonestly. Since as a designer you wish to find an optimal outcome with respect to the agents’ true preferences (e.g., electing a leader that truly reflects the agents’ preferences), optimizing with respect to the declared preferences will not in general achieve the objective. This tutorial will introduce Mechanism Design, the study of identifying socially desirable protocols for making decisions in such settings. It will describe the core principles behind this theory, and explain the famous "Vickrey-Clarke-Groves" mechanism, an ingenious technique for selecting globally-utility-maximizing outcomes even among selfish agents. It will also describe Auction Theory, the most famous application of mechanism design. Auctions are mechanisms that decide who should receive a scarce resource, and that impose payments upon some or all participants, based on agents' "bids".

Constraint Satisfaction Problem Solving
This hands-on tutorial will teach participants about solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems using search and constraint propagation techniques. This is a representation language from artificial intelligence, used to describe problems in scheduling, circuit verification, DNA structure prediction, vehicle routing, and many other practical problems. The tutorial will consider the problem of solving Sudoku puzzles as a running example. By the end of the session, participants will have written software (in Python) capable of solving any Sudoku puzzle in less than a second.

Bayesian methods and Probabilisitic Inference
Bayesian methods are commonly used for recognising patterns and making predictions in the fields of medicine, economics, finance and engineering, powering all manner of applications from fingerprint recognition to spam filters to robotic self-driving cars. This session will show how principles of probability can be used when making inferences from large datasets, covering issues such as prior knowledge and hyperpriors, the construction of "belief networks", and nonparametric methods such as Gaussian processes. Several applications will be demonstrated.

Computer Vision

It is useful to be able to automatically answer questions about an image, such as "is this the face of person X?", "how many cars are there on this street?" or "is there anything unusual about this x-ray?". This session will look at some of the current state of the art in computer vision techniques, including methods for representing the information in an image (feature extraction), and to recognise objects in an image given such a representation. We will particularly spend some time looking at approaches which have been found to work well empirically on object recognition, such as generalised Hough transforms, boosted cascades of Haar wavelet classifiers, and visual bag-of-words methods. Locally relevant applications in crop disease diagnosis, parasite detection in blood samples and traffic monitoring will be demonstrated as illustrating examples.

Learning Causal Structure from Data
Until a few decades ago, it was thought to be impossible to learn causes and effects from purely observational data without doing experiments. Sometimes, however, it is impossible to do experiments (e.g. in some branches of genetics), or experiments may be costly or unethical (e.g. situations in climate change or medicine), so the emergence of computational methods for distinguishing causes, effects and confounding variables is likely to have wide implications. Some principles are now understood for learning the causal structure between different variables, and this session will explain the most successful current approaches, their possibilities and their limitations.

Internet Search and Monetization
The internet is one of the most fundamental and important applications of computer science. Central to its existence are search engines which enable us to find content on the web. This module focuses on the algorithms like PageRank that these search engines use to help us find webpages. It also studies how these engines make money through advertising.

Social Networks
Social networks describe the structure of interpersonal relationships and have many alarmingly predictable properties. While most people have just a few friends, most social networks have at least a few very popular people. Furthermore, most people are closely linked to every other person so that a message (or an idea or a disease) can spread rapidly throughout the network. Finally, social networks tend to be fairly clustered — i.e., if two people share a common friend it is quite likely that they are also friends. This module will discuss the typical structures of social networks, models that explain these structures, and the impact of these structures on activities in the social network such as message routing or the adoption of new technologies.

Two-Sided Matching Markets
Many markets involve two “sides'' that wish to be matched to one another. For example, a marriage market matches women to men; a job market matches workers to employers. In such settings, people on each side have strict preferences over the options on the other side of the market. Hence, a woman Julie may like David best, John second best, and Christopher third. David on the other hand may prefer Mary to Julie. In such settings, what matches might we expect to form? Can these matches be computed by a centralized algorithm, a match-maker for example, and what are the corresponding incentives of the participants? These questions are of fundamental importance as such centralized algorithms are in use in many important markets. In many countries, medical students are matched to hospitals using such algorithms, or school children to schools.

Approximation Algorithms
In the field of algorithms, many tasks turn out to be computationally difficult. That is, the time to complete the task is fundamentally large compared to the size of the problem. For example, consider the problem of finding the optimal way to visit 10 cities, visiting each exactly once. To minimize travel time, one could test all possible travel schedules, but for 10 cities there are already 3.5M of them! Unfortunately, there is not a significantly quicker way to find the optimal solution. However, one can find an approximately optimal solution quickly. That is, with just a few things to check, one can design a schedule that takes at most 50% more time than the optimal one. In this module we showcase a few general techniques for computing approximate solutions to hard problems, including the use of randomization and linear programming.

Graph Theory
A graph is a combinatorial object consisting of nodes and edges, and is a extremely valuable abstraction of many practical problems. For example, nodes might represent jobs and edges might connect pairs of jobs that can not be performed simultaneously. Alternatively, nodes might represent electronic components on a circuit board and edges the wiring that connects them. Many questions that arise in such domains can be cast as an optimization question in the corresponding graph. The number of workers required to complete all jobs in fixed time frame in the first example is at its heart a graph coloring problem. Asking whether one can lay out the circuit board so no two wires cross becomes the problem of determining which graphs have planar representations. This course defines graphs, shows how to solve a few fundamental graph problems, and applies them to practical settings.

Speaker Bios

Nicole Immorlica is an assistant professor in the Economics Group of Northwestern University's EECS department in Chicago, IL, USA. She joined Northwestern in Fall 2008 after postdoctoral positions at Microsoft Research in Seattle, Washington, USA and Centruum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She received her Ph.D. from MIT in Boston, MA, USA, in 2005 under the joint supervision of Erik Demaine and David Karger. Her main research area is algorithmic game theory where she investigates economic and social implications of modern technologies including social networks, advertising auctions, and online auction design.

Kevin Leyton-Brown is an associate professor in computer science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He received a B.Sc. from McMaster University (1998), and an M.Sc. and PhD from Stanford University (2001; 2003). Much of his work is at the intersection of computer science and microeconomics, addressing computational problems in economic contexts and incentive issues in multiagent systems. He also studies the application of machine learning to the automated design and analysis of algorithms for solving hard computational problems.

John Quinn is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Makerere University. He received a BA in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge (2000) and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh (2007). He coordinates the Machine Learning Group at Makerere, and his research interests are in pattern recognition and computer vision particularly applied to developing world problems.

General

Stakeholders of Mastercard Foundation Initiatives at Makerere University Convene to Review Progress and Strengthen Collaboration

Published

18 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Mak Editor

Mr. Aggrey Kibenge, Prof. Sarah Ssali, Ms. Maria Mugerwa, pose in a photo with the Program Directors of the Mastercard Foundation Initiatives at Makerere. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa.

_{By Damali Mukhaye}

On 9^th July 2026, the Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives at Makerere University convened the 2^nd Partnership Development Breakfast meeting at Mestil hotel in Kampala, to review progress, share experiences, and explore opportunities to strengthen collaboration and advance education, research, innovation, and youth empowerment.

The partnership development meeting brought together Makerere University leadership, government officials, Mastercard Foundation representatives, development partners, private sector actors, and other key stakeholders to reflect on ongoing interventions and identify areas for deeper collaboration.

The engagement highlighted the progress and impact of key Mastercard Foundation initiatives at Makerere University, including the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme, the Africa Climate Collaborative (ACC), and the e-learning initiative, which are promoting increased access to education, research development, climate resilience, skills enhancement, and preparing young people for future opportunities.

Delivering the opening remarks, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Makerere University, Prof. Sarah Ssali, stated that stakeholder engagement was vital in building stronger links between the University, students, academic staff, employers, and other parties involved in shaping graduates’ futures.

Prof. Sarah Ssali, addressing the Stakeholders. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Prof. Sarah Ssali, addressing the Stakeholders.***

“You have been chosen for a purpose because it was not just about engaging with the students and stakeholders, but also with those involved in developing knowledge products and those who train and mentor our students,” Prof. Ssali said.

She emphasised the significance of partnerships in widening access to higher education, especially for students from marginalised backgrounds, highlighting that through scholarship programmes and inclusive education initiatives, Makerere University continues to attract and support talented students who might otherwise face obstacles to university access.

Prof. Ssali acknowledged the contribution of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program alongside other university initiatives, including the Africa Climate Collaborative, fee waiver schemes, and Council scholarships, which offer opportunities for students—especially those from vulnerable communities and talented female learners.

“Your investment in these young people is not charity, but a shared national development priority,” she said.

She explained that Makerere University’s partnership with the Mastercard Foundation aligns with the University’s strategic aim to enhance human capital development, research, and innovation in support of national development priorities under Uganda Vision 2040 and the Fourth National Development Plan.

Mr. Aggrey Kibenge, Prof. Sarah Ssali and other offcials pose in a group photo with other stakeholders. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Mr. Aggrey Kibenge, Prof. Sarah Ssali and other offcials pose in a group photo with other stakeholders***.

Prof. Ssali noted that the University has, over the years, transformed into a research-focused institution, with partnerships enabling it to address critical societal challenges.

She urged stakeholders to continue supporting young people through mentorship and guidance as they prepare for employment and entrepreneurship.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr Aggrey David Kibenge, praised the collaboration between Makerere University, the Mastercard Foundation, and other stakeholders, emphasising that teamwork is vital in tackling Uganda’s youth unemployment problem.

He observed that Uganda’s youthful population presents both an opportunity and a responsibility, with more than 70 per cent of the population under 30 years.

Mr Kibenge said the government alone cannot address youth unemployment and welcomed partnerships that support young people with relevant skills, employment pathways, and opportunities for entrepreneurship.

Mr. Aggrey Kibenge, addressing the Stakeholders. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Mr. Aggrey Kibenge, addressing the Stakeholders.***

He highlighted government interventions, including the National Apprenticeship and Graduate Volunteer Programme Management Information System (NAGVPMIS), which links graduates with potential employers via a digital platform.

The platform enables young people to upload their qualifications and skills, while employers can find suitable candidates based on available opportunities.

“By digitising the matching and recruitment process, we are making the system more transparent, efficient, and merit-based,” Kibenge said.

The Permanent Secretary also emphasised the need for education institutions, employers, and the government to work together to address the skills gap affecting many graduates entering the labour market.

Some of the Stakeholders following the proceedings during the event. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Some of the Stakeholders following the proceedings during the event.***

He noted that stronger partnerships with initiatives such as those supported by the Mastercard Foundation will help young people acquire skills that respond to changing labour market needs.

He reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to collaborating with the Mastercard Foundation and other partners to create more opportunities for young people to access dignified work.

Mastercard Foundation Highlights Young Africa Works Progress

Representing the Mastercard Foundation, Ms Maria Mugerwa, the Finance Lead at the Foundation, provided an update on the Young Africa Works Strategy, which seeks to enable 30 million young people, 70 per cent of them women, across Africa to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.

She explained that, in Uganda, the strategy aims to reach 4.3 million young people aged 18 to 35 through initiatives centred on entrepreneurship, enterprise development, education, and skills enhancement.

The strategy supports key areas, including micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), agriculture, the digital economy, creative industries, and inclusive opportunities for young people.

Ms. Maria Mugerwa, the representative of the Mastercard Foundation addressing the Stakeholders. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Ms. Maria Mugerwa, the representative of the Mastercard Foundation addressing the Stakeholders.***

Ms. Mugerwa noted that the Foundation’s approach is built on partnerships that bring together universities, government, private-sector actors, and communities to create pathways for young people to transition from education to employment.

“Closing this gap will require stronger collaboration among all stakeholders, including linking universities and graduates to opportunities created under the Young Africa Works Strategy.” She said.

She emphasised that ongoing collaboration will be essential in widening access to employment opportunities, finance, markets, and entrepreneurship support for young people.

Highlights of Mastercard Foundation Initiatives at Makerere University

Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program

The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at Makerere University continues to transform the lives of academically talented but economically constrained young Africans by expanding access to quality university education and nurturing the next generation of transformative leaders.

In a presentation by Prof. Justine Namaalwa, the Program Director, the initiative was emphasised as a comprehensive support model that extends beyond scholarships to offer academic assistance, leadership growth, psychosocial well-being, community involvement, and pathways to dignified employment, entrepreneurship, and further education.

Prof. Namaalwa, sharing highlights about the Scholars Program with the Stakeholders. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Prof. Namaalwa, sharing highlights about the Scholars Program with the Stakeholders.***

The Program has supported 971 Scholars and alumni, with many transitioning into formal employment, entrepreneurship, and advanced studies.

Guided by the values of listening, humility, kindness and respect, co-creation, and impact, the program promotes inclusion, belonging, and agency among young people.

Africa Climate Collaborative at Makerere University

The Program Director of the Africa Climate Collaborative, Prof. Gorettie Nabanoga, said that the programme, which kicked off in 2025, is a transformative eight-year university-wide initiative designed to empower young people and strengthen Africa’s capacity to develop inclusive, equitable, and innovative responses to climate change.

Implemented in collaboration with global and regional partners, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Cape Town, the University of Ghana, and the Association of African Universities, the Collaborative focuses on four interconnected pillars: workforce development, entrepreneurship, research and innovation, and networks, policy, and learning.

Prof. Nabanoga sharing highlights about ACC with the Stakeholders. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Prof. Nabanoga sharing highlights about ACC with the Stakeholders.***

Through its workforce development pillar, ACC will expand access to quality education by providing comprehensive scholarships to 250 Master’s students and 40 PhD students, while strengthening research capacity through academic mentorship and support.

The entrepreneurship pillar will equip 500 youth not in education, employment, or training with green entrepreneurship skills, provide incubation support, and promote youth-led green innovations.

The Collaborative will also establish a Climate Resilience Support Centre to drive interdisciplinary research and innovation while fostering partnerships, policy dialogues, and knowledge exchange to support climate-resilient communities.

e-Learning Initiative Phase II

In a presentation by Prof. Paul Birevu Muyinda, Director of the Institute of Open, Distance and eLearning (IODeL) at Makerere University, the progress and future direction of the Mastercard Foundation e-Learning Initiative Phase II were highlighted.

Building on the successful completion of Phase I in December 2024, Makerere University secured participation in the second phase, which aims to accelerate digital transformation and strengthen inclusive, learner-centred, and scalable e-learning systems across the institution.

Prof. Muyinda sharing highlights about the E-learing Initiative. Makerere University convened the 2nd Partnership Development Breakfast for Mastercard Foundation-supported initiatives, 9th July 2026, Mestil Hotel Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. — ***Prof. Muyinda sharing highlights about the E-learing Initiative.***

The initiative seeks to enhance access to quality digital education by developing 10 fully online academic programmes and 10 micro-credentials by 2030. It will also establish integrated digital learner support services, strengthen digital infrastructure, and promote digitally empowered leadership and governance within the University.

A key component of the initiative is building institutional capacity in learning design and technology.

Since January 2026, 35 Makerere University staff members have been undertaking graduate-level training at Arizona State University, with 13 pursuing Master’s programmes and 22 enrolled for graduate certificates in Learning Design and Technology.

Through strategic partnerships and innovation, the initiative will position Makerere University as a leader in digital education, expand opportunities for inclusive learning, and strengthen resilience in higher education.

The second stakeholder engagement session concluded with several stakeholders, including DFCU Bank, the Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA), the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), and Finn Church Aid, among others, committing to building stronger pathways that will enable students and graduates to contribute meaningfully to Uganda’s social and economic transformation.

Damali Mukhaye is the Communication, Public Relations, and Branding Officer for Africa Climate Collaborative at Makerere University.

General

Benchmarking Best Practices In Quality Assurance: Official Visit To The University Of Cape Town

Published

23 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Mak Editor

Left to Right: Mr. Bataamye Herbert-College Registrar, Dr. Irene Rebecca Namatende, Denise-UCT, Assoc. Prof. Annet Kutesa-Dentistry and Dr. Kalidi Rajab-Pharmacy. Makerere University College of Health Sciences (CHS) Quality Assurance, Gender Mainstreaming and ICT Committee benchmarking visit to the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa from 19th to 26th April, 2026.

_{By Dr. Irene Rebecca Namatende}

1.0 BACKGROUND

A team of four members of staff from the College of Health Sciences (CHS), Makerere University undertook an official benchmarking visit to the University of Cape Town (UCT) from 19^th to 26^th April, 2026. The four are members of the Quality Assurance, Gender Mainstreaming and ICT Committee-CHS. The delegation comprised two academic and two administrative staff led by the Dean, School of Dentistry, Prof. Annet Kutesa. Other members included;

Dr. Irene Rebecca Namatende – Quality Assurance Officer-CHS
Dr. Kalidi Rajab – Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy
Mr. Bataamye Herbert – CHS Registrar.

The primary purpose of the visit was to benchmark Quality Assurance (QA) systems in teaching, learning, and governance; strengthen institutional collaboration; and explore opportunities for academic exchange and joint initiatives between Makerere University and the University of Cape Town.

Right to Left: Dr. Kalidi Rajabu, Deputy Dean UCT, Assoc. Prof. Annet Kutesa, Denise-UCT, Mr. Bataamye Herbert and Dr. Irene Rebecca Namatende. Makerere University College of Health Sciences (CHS) Quality Assurance, Gender Mainstreaming and ICT Committee benchmarking visit to the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa from 19th to 26th April, 2026. — ***Right to Left: Dr. Kalidi Rajabu, Deputy Dean UCT, Assoc. Prof. Annet Kutesa, Denise-UCT, Mr. Bataamye Herbert and Dr. Irene Rebecca Namatende.***

1.1 Purpose of the Visit to UCT was

To gain an understanding of institutional QA frameworks at UCT across teaching, research and governance, and identify adaptable best practices for Makerere University.
To explore effective strategies used by UCT to design, monitor, and continuously improve academic programmes, ensuring relevance, consistency, and excellence.
To learn from UCT’s experiences and approaches to national and international accreditation processes, including preparation, documentation, and stakeholder engagement.
To examine mechanisms for fostering staff engagement, ownership, and accountability in QA and continuous improvement processes.

2.0 Key Areas Covered During the Visit

2.1 Quality Assurance Systems

The visit explored the institutional quality assurance framework at the University of Cape Town, focusing on its structured approach to academic quality management. Emphasis was placed on clearly defined QA units, robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and the integration of quality assurance processes into routine academic delivery and programme oversight. Discussions also highlighted systematic approaches to curriculum design and periodic review, ensuring alignment with accreditation standards and evolving educational needs.

The team at the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences. Makerere University College of Health Sciences (CHS) Quality Assurance, Gender Mainstreaming and ICT Committee benchmarking visit to the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa from 19th to 26th April, 2026. — ***The team at the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences.***

We found that QA frameworks at UCT cut across teaching, research and governance. Here below are some of the key findings;

All programmes must be approved by the Council of Higher Education, Quality Regulation Framework.
All programmes must be accessible to the Council of Higher Education (CHE).
The Academic Programmes at UCT are reviewed after every 5 years.
Every programme goes through detailed evaluation before approval.

Support Staff are also interviewed before appointment into university service.
Each programme must be accounted for by UCT to the Councils
Comprehensive information for each programme is required by the Councils before approval is given.
It is important to have integrity of qualifications and qualification of programmes.
After O. Level the students sit for a National Benchmark Test.

2.2 Governance and Leadership

The visit provided insights into transparent and participatory governance structures that support effective decision-making. There is a strong emphasis on staff engagement, accountability, and leadership at different institutional levels. A culture of continuous improvement is embedded within governance systems, supported by regular review and feedback mechanisms.

2.3 Teaching and Learning

The discussions further highlighted the institution’s diverse student assessment methods and structured feedback systems, alongside the effective integration of digital technologies to enhance teaching, learning, and student engagement.

Here below are the key outcomes;

Every Course unit exam should be moderated by an External Moderator.
The external moderator is appointed at the beginning of the year.
The external moderator makes recommendations.
These recommendations are in form of policies.
Ensure overall examination preparedness for all students
The template for external moderation is revised regularly.
The moderators also assess if, the exams are fair or not.

Conclusion:

The team in one of the Computer Labs at UCT. Makerere University College of Health Sciences (CHS) Quality Assurance, Gender Mainstreaming and ICT Committee benchmarking visit to the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa from 19th to 26th April, 2026. — ***The team in one of the Computer Labs at UCT.***

Key Takeaways

The promotion ladder at UCT is more on the Competences, individual contributions on supervision, publications, community service and experience.
QA is embedded in every unit and department.

We thank the Principal, College of Health Sciences and CMT for the support that facilitated this benchmarking visit.

General

Re-Advertisement for Positions of Principal and Deputy Principal at Makerere University

Published

24 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Mak Editor

Front View of the reconstructed Main Building, Makerere University. Date Taken 8th November 2024. Kampala Uganda, East Africa.

Makerere University, Uganda’s premier institution of higher learning and one of Africa’s leading research universities, invites applications from suitably qualified and distinguished individuals for the positions of Principal and Deputy Principal in the Colleges listed below. The University seeks visionary leaders with demonstrated academic excellence, strategic leadership, and a commitment to institutional transformation. This advertisement is for the positions of:

Principal and Deputy Principal, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES)
Principal and Deputy Principal, College of Education and External Studies (CEES)
Principal and Deputy Principal, College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS)
Principal and Deputy Principal, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB)
Principal, College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS)
Deputy Principal, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS).

Mode of application

Interested individuals for the positions of Principal and Deputy Principal should submit the following documents sealed in an envelope addressed to the University Secretary;

A signed letter of application;
Certified copies of academic certificates and transcripts;
The curriculum vitae of the candidate;
Three (3) letters of recommendation;
Copies of the required minimum number of publications;
Copies of letters of appointment to leadership positions at the level of Head of Department and/or its equivalent or higher in a recognised institution comparable to that of Makerere University;
A copy of the applicant’s national ID or passport; and
A copy of the last letter of clearance from the Inspectorate of Government or other equivalent national body.

The deadline for applications is 17^th July 2026 at 5:00 p.m. East African Time.

Applications should be hand-delivered to:

The University Secretary
Makerere University
Main Administration Building,
Level 2, University Secretary’s Office

Or submitted via email at search.principal@mak.ac.ug

Makerere is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from suitably qualified individuals regardless of gender, disability, or other legally protected status. The University is committed to promoting diversity, inclusion and excellence in all its activities.

THOSE WHO HAD APPLIED EARLIER NEED NOT RE-APPLY

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