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Tullow-CFK Model Milestone Achievement

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To contribute to Africa's sustainable development, Tullow Oil made a generous Grant to The Council for Frontiers of Knowledge (The CFK) to support students to pursue Masters Courses at Makerere University. The Scholarships were awarded to qualifying Ugandan Students to read for a two year Masters Course that commenced in the fourth quarter of 2011 at Makerere University in Civil Engineering, Chemistry, Environment and Natural Resources.

Specifically, the following activities were carried out using Tullow Oil’s generous funding: two year educational fees paid to zero balance, monthly stipends (two years), laptops and accessories, Tullow-CFK wireless internet (serving whole CEDAT Old Building), World-class Reference Library (CFK CEDAT Old Building Offices), ENVI Technology Software and Hardware (at CFK Office, serving Makerere University and beyond), higher degrees presentation room and high technology facilities, full funding to Tullow-CFK Session at the November 2012 CFK International Conference at Commonwealth Speke Resort and Conference Centre, Munyonyo in Uganda, sponsored students to present their research work at national and international conferences, offered international training and equipping to Makerere University students with very specialised software and technology packages including: SEISAN Earthquake Analysis Software, CRISIS2007 and ENVI software in Dublin, Ireland. Please note that acquisition of SEISAN Software is available on The CFK website, while ENVI technology is installed at The CFK Offices, at West Wing, CEDAT Old Building, Makerere University.

International trips to Dublin, Ireland:  June 2012 and May 2013: Tullow sponsored students were funded from A-Z by Tullow Oil. The Dublin trips provided a valuable discussion venue for students with their Tullow mentors along with their Makerere University academic advisors. Tullow-CFK Sponsored Students clearly benefited by discussing their specific research projects, identifying objectives, and discussing limitations. Students also saw first-hand how the different sectors of the industry have to partner in order to achieve a successful commercial outcome. Similarly, they and their academic advisors from Makerere University learned more about the technical and logistic details of the challenges faced by Tullow Oil in the Albertine Graben. Prof. Chris Bean and Prof. Stephen Daly from University College Dublin also visited the group and met with the Makerere Professors and students. Ideas were spontaneously exchanged from both sides, and this definitely strengthened the overall education of the students as well as enhancing connectivity levels of Makerere Scientists. In a bid to fill up very wide technology gaps, with full funding from Tullow Oil, Tullow Oil-CFK Masters funded students were trained in January 2013, in Dublin, Ireland at the Tullow Oil Dublin Office by Prof. Lars Ottem'oller; one of the developers of the SEISAN seismic analysis software. To access the Software, please visit: http://thecfkglobal.org/seisan-software.php     

Tullow Oil’s two year funding/partnership with The Council for the Frontiers of Knowledge (The CFK), made it possible for ALL the FIVE Tullow Masters supported scholars graduating, with distinctions from Makerere University, Uganda.

The students were robustly selected and the results of the stringent selection process of The CFK Scholarship Committee, international science and technology mentorship by the relevant CFK Directors and Tullow Dublin technologists, and of course, the SUPERIOR programme coordination with the standardised transparency and integrity by The CFK, were plainly evident in the exceptionally excellent performance both in coursework and research. All the five students had their CGPA’s far above 4.0, with two of the five obtaining the MAXIMUM CGPA of 5.0!!

The Tullow Oil-CFK and Makerere Partnership achieved two cardinal roles:

  1. Development of local content at postgraduate level: Tullow Oil’s partnership with The CFK has reinforced the institutional capacity of Makerere University and beyond to supervise highly specialised research projects to an international standard.
  2. In-country growth of oil and gas industry: The five Masters candidates are now fully equipped with exceptional skills needed for developing the oil and gas industry of Uganda and beyond.

The scholars all added another VITAL achievement to their list by graduating in less than the two-year stipulated time-frame, as NO MSc student has managed this in the Makerere University’s 90 year history! Specifically, before the end of the two years, ALL the five students had completed their postgraduate studies (concept definition and construction, field work, data collection and analysis, internal and external theses examination, dissertation public defence etc.) and been cleared for graduation!
 
 The five Tullow Oil sponsored scholars, Bwambale Barnabas, Robert Tumwesige and Prossy Atolere all MSc. Civil Engineering, John Mugisa, MSc. Chemistry, Christine Ainabyona, MSc. Environment and Natural Resources, graduated (Tuesday 28th and 30th January, 2014) at a ceremony which was presided over by Makerere’s Chancellor Professor George Mondo Kagonyera.  The event was also attended by His Excellency Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi, the Vice President of the Republic of Uganda, Ugandan Members of Parliament, members of the Diplomatic Community, Cabinet Ministers, and of course family and friends of the graduates. Makerere’s Vice Chancellor Professor Ddumba-Ssentamu took the opportunity to thank Tullow Oil, saying the Tullow-CFK project contributed to the much-needed development of local content and in-country growth within the industry. The Vice Chancellor further encouraged other relevant stakeholders and programme managers, in the 64th graduation audience, to emulate the Tullow-CFK Model/Initiative so to enable Africa make tangible and lasting socio-economic growth and development.

Professor Fionn Murtagh, Chair of the CFK Board, and  Professor Pankaj Vadgama, Deputy Chair, attested that “The standard achieved by the five students was fully on par with the very best of Masters outcomes that would be expected in any Irish or UK university”. Professor Murtagh added, "The great performance of the students, throughout their Masters work and in what they have accomplished, is testimony to their excellence. This is a great achievement also for their Makerere University supervisors. On behalf of The CFK Board, I would like to point to The CFK/Tullow Oil model that underpins this great success".

Article by The CFK

Mark Wamai

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Special Exam Results -Diploma in Performing Arts 2025/26

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The results for the 2025/2026 special entry examination for the Diploma in Performing Arts held on Saturday 17th May, 2025. Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the Examination and have been recommended to the university’s Admissions Committee for consideration.

Mak Editor

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Mature Age Scheme Exam Results for 2025/2026

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The Office of Academic Registrar, Makerere University has released full results for the Mature Age Entry Scheme Examinations for the Academic Year 2025/2026 held on Saturday 14th December, 2024.

The Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the examination and have been recommended by the Pre-Entry & Mature Age Committee to the University’s Admissions Board for Consideration.

The Aptitude Exam  Results for 2025/2026 Academic Year released in February 2025 can be found here.

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Call for Application: 2025 SNRM session 4 Summer School

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Participants in focused group discussions. Leiden-Delft-Erasmus East Africa Research Network (LEARN) in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab at Makerere University a workshop to deliberate strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change in urban centres in the East African Region, Theme: “Resilient Urban Futures: Adapting Livelihoods to Climate Change”, 4th-5th September 2024, School of Public Health Auditorium, Kampala Uganda.

Context:
Natural resources in Africa are being depleted at an alarming rate due to several factors, including unsustainable human activities, climate change, and population growth. A primary condition of sustainable development is to ensure that the pressures do not exceed the environmental limits, and that demand for the resources does not exceed levels that can be sustainably provided by nature. Therefore, there is a pressing need for transformative, systems-thinking approaches and tools that can tackle the diverse challenges facing these systems. In Africa, this need is compounded by a lack of data and monitoring, which significantly hinders sustainable decision-making.

Investing in young scientists who are committed to take lead in sustainable management of Africa’s natural resources is very important. Capacity building of young scientists will enhance their knowledge and skill on sustainable natural resources and their involvement for implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDG’s) in Africa. To this effect, SNRM summer schools have been implemented in three sessions in 2019, 2020, and 2022 with support from Volkswagen Foundation; to build a critical mass of skilled and competent young natural resource scientists in Africa through training, capacity building and mentorship. Session 4 (2025) will target competent young scientists (MSc and PhD students) in Africa and Germany to further develop their knowledge and skills in systems thinking, advanced data collection and analysis, and application of emerging digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), and embracing transdisciplinary approaches. In addition, we include an ideation workshop where students can work on real problems to come up with solutions for sustainable transformations in natural resource use.

Organizers: Leibniz Universität – Hannover (Germany), University of Antananarivo, University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana (Ghana), University of Parakou (Benin), The Technical University of Kenya, with financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).

Venue and dates: Nairobi, Kenya, 16-28 November 2025

Target: MSc and PhD students, early in the program of less than 35 years of age from any university/research institution in either sub-Saharan Africa or Germany with an interest in natural resources management.

Participants and Scholarships: The course is fully funded and open to 20 MSc and PhD students from Africa, and 5 from Germany. Funding will cover the costs of air ticket, accommodation, meals, visa, and transportation. However, participants will cover the cost of their travel health insurance.

Topics

SNRM Summer School Session 4: Transformative pathways in biodiversity management and conservation.
This summer school is designed to deliver four modules over a two-week period. The modules are designed to enable the students to acquire new ways of designing data collection protocols and analysis for transformative sustainable natural resources management.

Module 4.1: Data collection I
Skills in data collection for a transformative and sustainable management of natural resources (water, wildlife, forest, land, livestock, crops) monitoring and data collection techniques; remote monitoring tools, earth observation system data, e.g. satellite data sources, LIDAR, and UAV aerial images. Collect and analyse In-situ data on biotic and abiotic parameters, map and analyse data using R or Google Earth Engine, field data collection and retrieving data from online databases.

Module 4.2 Data management and processing
Introduction to tools and methods of managing large and diverse data sets of natural resources such as time series, spatial, directional, and multivariate data. Practicals will include data storage, organization and conversion into various formats using databases such as PostgreSQL and statistical programming software such as R and Python; scripts.

Module 4.3 Ecological monitoring, modelling and management
This module aims to teach participants how to anticipate and validate trends that can be observed in various ecosystems. Lectures include ecological monitoring and its design; population monitoring studies; metrics in population monitoring; methods for monitoring and assessing marine ecosystems; human ecology to socio-ecological systems; climate change impact of ecosystems; suitability assessments; overview of the principles underlying wildlife monitoring and prediction systems for climate change adaptation. Practicals will include field data collection (individual and group); ecological data analysis using R or PAST; modelling and experiencing the behaviour of complex systems using Vensim.

Module 4.4 Natural habitat restoration ideation lab
This module is designed to spur students’ innovation and creativity, and to help students comprehensively identify interdependencies across the 17 SDG goals. Participants will be trained on ideation processes for solutions and intervention for transformative natural resource management. They will work collaboratively in small groups on case studies and develop pathways of transformative sustainable natural resource management. Examples of projects include forest (mangrove) ecosystem and habitat restoration, improved technologies for agricultural production, nature-based solutions for improving water quality, and reversing land degradation.

Language: The course will be delivered in English. Participants are expected to be fluent in writing and speaking the English language.

How to apply

Applicants are kindly requested to fill in the application form available from https://snrmafrica.com/ and submit the following documents in English through the system.

  • a curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
  • a letter of motivation (maximum 1 page)
  • a confirmation of university enrolment
  • a reference letter from the academic supervisor
  • project summary of MSc/ PhD project (1 page including objectives, methodology
    and key findings or expected outcomes).

Important dates
Application deadline: 30th June 2025.
Announcement of accepted applicants: 15th August 2025.
Confirmation of attendance by selected participants: 12th Sept 2025.
Summer school held: 16 – 28 Nov 2025.

Further information is available from

The secretariat info@snrmafrica.com
Dr Lydia Olaka lydiaolaka@tukenya.ac.ke
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stuetzel stuetzel@gem.uni-hannover.de

Mak Editor

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