General
Makerere’s Doctoral Completion Rates Improve
“By the power of the authority vested in me, I confer upon you the Degree of the Doctor of Philosopy of Makerere University,” declares the Chancellor as he confers a Doctoral Degree upon a successful candidate, on completion of his/her study.
“By the power of the authority vested in me, I confer upon you the Degree of the Doctor of Philosopy of Makerere University,” declares the Chancellor as he confers a Doctoral Degree upon a successful candidate, on completion of his/her study.
To the casual observer, this doctoral award process is all too repetitive and laborious, considering that the Masters and Bachelors awards are done en mass! Unknown to them however, this unique award practice is just the tip of the iceberg, the icing on the cake that has taken over five and in some cases seven years of careful planning, meticulous research, laborious poring over countless theses, books and stacks of references, and finally fervent and on occasion argumentative defence of your work before a panel of experts.
Makerere produces the highest number of PhDs in the region, with this year’s tally alone coming 57. However, this figure could have even been higher, had more candidates managed to complete in time. This 
was the focus of the 8th PhD Dissemination series featuring Mr. Robert Wamala from the School of Statistics and Planning, College of Business and Management Sciences. Mr Wamala’s paper; Likelihood of Completion and Extended Candidature of a PhD: A Five-year Analysis of Studies at Makerere University was based on data from 295 doctoral students at Makerere University in the enrolment cohorts from 2000 to 2005.
In his remarks, Mr. Alfred Masikye Namoah the Academic Registrar, noted the importance of dissemination, as an avenue of public information, so as to help turn research into policy and hence help increase Makerere University’s visibility and relevance to the community.
Dr. Bruno Ocaya , Senior Lecturer-School of Statistics and Planning and Mr. Wamala’s supervisor, commended him for his persistent research, whose data is now being used to teach fellow graduate students, unlike in the past where data from institutions outside Uganda was used.
Mr. Robert Wamala started off his presentation by objecting to the assertion that Makerere’s doctoral completion rates had declined over the last 5years, as his research had proved otherwise. He then observed that whereas academic scholarships made life easier for candidates at Makerere, extended candidature was more common among science-based, financially supported candidates. And while a high Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) is every undergraduate student’s dream, Mr. Wamala observed that this CGPA was not a strong determinant of timely completion. Candidates with relatively low CGPA on enrollment had the same completion times and sometimes even better ones than their counterparts who had higher CGPAs.
He further noted that completion rates are not purely affected by factors within the PhD study but also prior factors such as age; younger candidates had better completion times, and nationality; international students register better completion times than their Ugandan counterparts. Factors during, such as financial support as noted earlier, were only found to actually increase completion time and extend candidature.
Per capita expenditure per student in any country is vital for the promotion of research in Universities. Whereas it was observed that Uganda’s per capita expenditure per student paled in comparison to her South African counterparts, Makerere University’s doctoral completion rates were higher than some South African institutions and her attrition rates fared favourably with other International Universities.
The discussant of the day Dr. Xavier Mugisha a Senior Research Fellow at the Economic Policy Research Centre commended Mr. Wamala for his great presentation, “Robert has done great work, and as far as his paper is concerned, I found it flawless.”
He further congratulated Makerere University on her completion rates considering the support received, but challenged the institution to perform even better. He noted that the institution has a good catchment area with academics that have a drive to succeed and excel. He further noted that with good remuneration, Makerere could easily register the highest doctoral completion rates in Africa.
Professor Buyinza Mukadasi, Deputy Director, Research and Graduate Training (DRGT), Makerere University and the day’s Chief Guest thanked Mr. Wamala for his elaborate presentation and acknowledged that the Directorate would surely benefit from the paper. He reiterated the directorate’s vision to make Makerere the leader in research and graduate training in the region, by ensuring even better completion rates.
Student interaction with peers and faculty is an enhancer of graduate training, and Prof. Buyinza pledged that the Directorate would promote these interactions, as enabling pillars of PhD completion.
Downloads
PhD Abstract-Mr. Robert Wamala: doc(24KB), pdf(11KB)
8th PhD Dissemination Series Programme: pdf(23KB)
8th PhD Dissemination Attrition and Completion Rates: pdf(27KB)
8th PhD Dissemination Attrition and Completion Rates Table: pdf(46KB)
mwamai@admin.mak.ac.ug, Public Relations Office
The Senior Program Director, Higher Education and Research in Africa, International Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prof. Omotade Akin Aina on 23rd May 2025 visited Makerere University during his short trip to Kampala. Prof. Aina was received on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe by Prof. Tony Oyana, Principal of the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS).
During his visit, Prof. Aina met with the Project Implementation Committee, representatives from the Consolidating Early Career Academics Programme (CECAP) phase I Fellowship Cohort, and current Fellows of phase II. The meeting discussed the progress of CECAP II, which focuses on fostering academic development and research among early-career academics.
CECAP II is being implemented by Makerere University in collaboration with four other Ugandan public universities, including; Busitema University, Gulu University, Kyambogo University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza, the Project Principal Investigator was represented at the meeting by the Director of Graduate Training, Prof. Julius Kikooma.
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training at Makerere University has equipped several Senior ranking lecturers with expert knowledge in a Training of Trainers’ workshop on “Philosophy of Methods”.
In his remarks at the opening of a 3-day training workshop at Level4 Conference Hall – Senate Building, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “The teaching of Philosophy of Methods gives all participants the fundamentals to extend knowledge to other learners, hence its importance in upholding the Makerere University values.”
Kikooma urged and challenged the participants to also attend and actively participate in the follow up of learners’ training of students, stating that the PhD students need support as the directorate continues to coordinate the curriculum of PhD by-research that was approved by the senate recently.
“To holistically implement the senate approved PhD curriculum, we are coordinating capacity building trainings of all stake holders in a structured approach with the different units of the University. Many more trainings including Training of Trainers in advanced research methods course are on the way.”
He further urged the participants to be intentional in their teaching profession and in whatever they were doing, adding “Apart from focusing on practices as teachers and researchers, we can engage in wider philosophical debates in our research areas so that we are relevant in the society and in the empowerment of PhD research students.”
The participants for the Philosophy of Methods training were from College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University Business School among others.
During the same training, Dr. Dickson Kanakulya stressed the need to train senior lecturers in the Philosophy of Methods, saying, “The biggest connection is that societal problems require concrete research to find solutions. Our challenge in Africa is that we employ a short barrow approach to find solutions to problems. This cannot work. We need consistent researchers to solve problems. Lasting solutions to societal issues can only be got through training such as Philosophy of Methods, where researchers come up with new models for societal solutions.”
Dr. Kanakulya said that Makerere University remains the biggest research University in Africa and philosophy of Methods helps to come up with good research tools that produce good research outputs. “Research has shown that the higher the number of PhD researchers in any given country, the higher the levels of development of that country e.g. the USA, China etc., adding that research is not limited to only medicinal or agricultural related issues.”
He said philosophy of methods, encourages philosophical creativity in research, “It is meant to bring out philosophical generation of concepts, theories and ideas. It is meant to encourage students to question the existing philosophical assumptions and status quo in a given field of knowledge such that new philosophical concepts are created.”
For successful rollout of government programs like the National Development Plan 4, Dr. Kanakulya said that Philosophy of Methods training needs to be integrated into such systems. “Philosophy of Methods focuses on ethical thinking aspects. For example, for a better rollout of the Parish Development Model, we need implementers to be ethical.” He added.
Prof. Sulait Tumwiine, the associate Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at MUBS said, “This is a discussion where new ideas are shared to guide and gauge applicability in the current knowledge diversity coupled with lots of technological development including Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT.”
He added, “As professors of Universities, we need to understand how we leverage on what comes up so that it does not take our space, but also appreciate how we can support growth of knowledge. The Philosophy of Methods training is the answer.”
Dr. Jim Spire Ssentongo highlighted that Philosophy uses more of the critical mind than Science. He added that philosophy is more of speculation of the mind.
“Sustainability of philosophy Education encourages us to continue training. Philosophy being the oldest discipline retained special status in the academia as a pinnacle of pursuit of knowledge. All disciplines have major elements of philosophy citing examples in the philosophy of Mathematics and Physics.
Dr. Spire added, “If you do not understand philosophy, you cannot deeply investigate anything because philosophy is the reality of understanding everything. Philosophy is the basis of understanding what knowledge is and how it is arrived at.”
Also participating in the workshop was Prof. Joseph Ntaayi from MUBS, in his remarks he said PhD students need the philosophy of methods training to understand how to best to create knowledge. He added that ontological and epistemological questions that lead to good research design methods can only be answered by this training.
Dr. Robert Kakuru, a Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences said that the Philosophy of Methods training is needed by every graduate student as well as supervisors to critically determine the choice of methods to use in academic research. For example, “If one wants to use a questionnaire as an interview approach, one should understand, why that approach and yet without this training, the why cannot be answered.” He added.
The Philosophy of Methods training was organized by Directorate of Graduate Training with funding support from the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).
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