The Project, ‘Strengthening ICT Training and Research Capacity in the Four Public Universities in Uganda’ was based in Uganda under The Netherlands Programme for Institutional Strengthening of Post-Secondary Education and Training Capacity (NPT) Programme.

The Project, ‘Strengthening ICT Training and Research Capacity in the Four Public Universities in Uganda’ was based in Uganda under The Netherlands Programme for Institutional Strengthening of Post-Secondary Education and Training Capacity (NPT) Programme.

The lead institution in the South was Makerere University's then Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, now the School of Computing and Informatics Technology (CIT), and the lead institution in the North was the University of Groningen The other project partners were Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST); Gulu University; and Kyambogo University in the South and; Radboud University Nijmegen (RUN) and Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) in the North.

The overall objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of Makerere University's CIT, the Institute of Computer Science at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, the Departments of Computer Science at Kyambogo and Gulu Universities to develop, implement and manage relevant educational and research programmes for poverty alleviation, rural and economic development.

The project was concerned with strengthening ICT training and research capacity within the education sector, one of the selected intervention areas of the NPT programme in Uganda. The project’s aim was to strengthen the capacity of Makerere University's CIT, the Institute of Computer Science at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, the Departments of Computer Science at Kyambogo and Gulu Universities to develop, implement and manage relevant educational and research programmes in the field of ICT.

The target group was university staff and students in the above institutions and ICT policy makers. The main activities required expertise from The Netherlands for support in educational programmes implementation, development of research capacity, training of staff of the four universities at PHD level in ICT either in The Netherlands or in Uganda; and strengthening of a center of excellence for computing and ICT training and research at Makerere University. Other activities included; development of ICT infrastructure at the four public Universities in Uganda, promotion of gender balance in staff and students population, and enhancing ICT awareness and promotion among the policy makers and the general public.

The ultimate goal of the project was to enable the recipient institutions to contribute through ICT towards the national struggle for poverty alleviation, rural and economic development in Uganda.

The project was implemented in a period of four (4) years and it commenced on 1st June 2007. The maximum amount of the grant from Nuffic was 5,700,000 Euros and the period of the grant is from 1st June 2007 to 31st May 2011. The Southern Institutions contributed approximately 500,000 Euros in form of financial and material inputs such as complementary funding and equipment, physical infrastructure and human resource. Thus at the end of four years the project was worth at least 6,200,000 Euros.

The project closes tomorrow 31st May 2011 and a workshop will be held today 30th May 2011, followed by a closing ceremony to be presided over by the Honourable Minister for ICT. See downloads for full project report.

Downloads

Nuffic II Final Project Report: MS Word Version, PDF Version, Postscript Version

mwamai@admin.mak.ac.ug, Public Relations Office