General
Makerere Infrastructure Master Plan rolls out
Technology Consults (TECO) presented the proposed Makerere University 30 year Master Plan, covering the Main campus, the College of Health Sciences and Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute, Kabanyolo (MUARIK). This was at a Stakeholders meeting in the Senate Conference Hall on 28th April 2014. The meeting was intended to get input from Makerere University’s constituents including the Colleges, Directorates, Management and also from technocrats based at the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). The Master Plan synthesis process has been on-going since 2012.
“With the Master Plan, we hope to improve our service delivery and improve the image of Makerere University. I would like to thank the University Council and Management for approving and supporting this venture. I thank Technology Consultants, for developing the Master Plan. I also thank the Departments of Estates & Works and Planning & Development that have worked with Technology Consultants up to this point. I am aware that the task ahead may not be easy, but each one of us has a role to play and together, we will work to the success of this process,” said the Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Ddumba- Ssentamu.
According to the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Finance and Administration, Dr. Barnabas Nawangwe, Makerere University’s last Master Plan was drafted in 1993. “The conditions at that time compared to now were so different. At the moment, we have bigger student numbers, increased academic programmes, a Collegiate system and more campuses. We need a Master Plan that facilitates our agenda to be a research-led university. This Plan is comprehensive and it should ride tandem with the current University Strategic Plan 2008/09–2018/19,” he asserted.
For the Main campus, the Master Plan proposes construction of commercial facilities, hotels, a students’ centre and a perimeter wall. It demarcates green areas and parking slots too. To make room for these facilities, some of the existing structures like the dilapidated buildings behind Lumumba hall and behind the Estates and Works Department, will be demolished. The Guest House will also be replaced with a state-of-the-art hotel. According to the Director Planning, Dr. Florence Nakayiwa, “The starting point for the implementation of the Master Plan will be the construction of two centralized lecture facilities; one at the UCB slab (CoBAMS) and the other at the foundation next to CHUSS. We are also looking at putting up a multi-disciplinary complex at CoNAS. Funding for these facilities has already been secured from the African Development Bank (ADB).” These facilities target the big enrolment Colleges including CoBAMS, CHUSS, CEES and CoCIS. Each of these structures will have an overall capacity of 10,000 students in one sitting, and will have lecture theaters that can accommodate 1,000 students.
Looking at Kabanyolo, an area of 650 acres of land, the Master Plan proposes that the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) be relocated to this vast land, to allow for demarcation of areas for agricultural production, agricultural research and a main administration block with lecture rooms. Part of the funding to kick start works at Kabanyolo has also been secured from ADB. “I am glad that the University Management has finally given priority to CAES. We are optimistic that when we shift to Kabanyole, we shall be allowed to be semi-autonomous in the real sense. We would like to grow our centers of excellence,” commented Prof. Elly Sabiti of CAES.
For the College of Health Sciences, CHS, a teaching hospital is proposed at Katalemwa, which currently has 35 acres of bare land. This is expected to broaden the scope of teaching medicine and consequently increase enrolment, according to Dr. Nakayiwa. “The Bwaise quarters is another potential place for CHS to expand,” she added and called on Staff Members to embrace the Master Plan.
In the discussions that followed, participants proposed that the Master Plan be revised to reflect all traffic including pedestrian traffic, usage of space more on the un-leased versus leased land, making provisions for record keeping of students’ submitted dissertations/theses for three years as is required by law, provision for College libraries, bio-gas management, benchmarking from leading universities in the world, and utilization of the unlimited vertical space.
A representative from KCCA, Jacqueline Mali, observed that the Master Plan ought to follow guidelines from Ministry of Lands so avoid conflicting at a later date. In her vote of thanks, Amanda Ngabirano from CEDAT requested the Consultant to “Carry out more consultations with the stakeholders and eliminate generalizations in the Master Plan, on top of streamlining the Vision of the Plan.
The Master Plan will be revised to incorporate some of the proposed amendments before it is approved by Council. More funding for the Master Plan is hoped to be secured through Public Private Partnerships, Government and internally generated funds.
By Marion Alina, Public Relations Office
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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