A delegation of thirteen from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Nigeria, visited Makerere University to benchmark the best practices that have maintained Mak in a coveted position. The delegation was on a study tour to Uganda to meet with officials from the Ministry of Education and Sports responsible for formulation and implementation of government policies in respect of primary, secondary and tertiary education. At Makerere University, the delegation was received by Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs, Prof Okello Ogwang and Ms. Martha Muwanguzi the Head of International Relations Office. The Director of the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training, Prof Buyinza also attended the meeting. Later, they met with the Director of Quality Assurance Directorate Dr. Vincent Ssembatya and Prof. William Kyamuhagire from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).

Amb. Adamu Abbas, who led the Nigerian delegation emphasized that Africa can redeem her own education standards. “Education is lagging behind in Africa. We need to learn the best practices in our own institutions of higher learning and apply them to improve ourselves. I believe we are better off learning from one another because we have many commonalities as opposed to benchmarking Universities in the Western world. We are hoping to learn a lot from Makerere” he said.

Dr. Ssembatya welcomed the initiative to benchmark with Makerere University, describing it as a critical step in extending Makerere University’s agenda to create more partnerships and collaborations with other institutions the world over. He presented a brief about Makerere University, highlighting the improvement in regional and international ranking, high caliber of staff and students, and ability to attract research funding. “Makerere University is positioning to be a research- led university with more concentration on graduate programmes. We have been doing well and continue to do well in research. We are among the top 100 universities in the world in terms of attracting research partnerships and the best in the region. We pride in ground breaking research for example our students from the College of Computing and IT developed an application to detect malaria parasites using a mobile phone. This eliminates the scary necessity to prick,” he explained.   

Prof. Kyamuhangire emphasized that Africa needs to fund her own research if she is to have a global impact. “Africa has the requisite human resource but as long as our research direction is dictated by funders, we lose out on focusing on the kind of research that will build us,” he said.

The delegation needed to know what Makerere was doing towards moving from basic to applied research and impact communities. In response, Prof. Kyamuhangire shared that Makerere University has three major pillars of its activities namely; teaching, research and community engagement and that the University had a deliberate strategy to engage in research translation, enhanced by numerous collaborations with the industry. The College of Agriculture developed  the MakSoy variety that is disease free and is recognized internationally, the College of Health Sciences a PMTCT drug that prevents pregnant HIV mothers from transmitting the virus to the unborn child, to mention just a few. It was a requirement for all undergraduate students to do internship from second year to prepare them for the job market and for starting their own businesses.

The delegation toured the Makerere University Food Science and Technology Incubation Centre and canteen. The International Relations Head, Muwanguzi, was grateful for the visit, adding that Makerere University is open to new frontiers and urged the visiting delegation to explore avenues of collaboration with Makerere University.

Story by Marion Alina