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Cambridge Trust Explore Collaboration with Mak

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Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is one of the oldest in the world, with a student population of 21,000; 58% being undergraduate and 42% postgraduate. 11% of the undergraduate student population and approximately 53% of postgraduate applicants originate from outside the European Union (EU). The Cambridge Trust is the principal provider of scholarships at the University of Cambridge supporting around 1,200 students at any one time.

Despite the focus on international graduate students, Cambridge Trust receives few applications from Uganda and Makerere in particular. This nagging question therefore prompted Dame Barbara Stocking, and Mrs. Helen Pennant to visit Makerere University and interact with the Management, Leadership, Staff and Students on 12th September 2017. Dame Barbara Stocking is the President of Murray Edwards College and Trustee of both the Gates Cambridge Trust and the Cambridge Trust, while Mrs. Helen Pennant is the Director of the Cambridge Trust.

L-R: Dame Barbara Stocking, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, Mr. Charles Barugahare and Mr. Goddy Muhumuza during the meeting

Welcoming the delegation, the Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe thanked the ladies for seeking to strengthen and extend the existing connections between Makerere and the University of Cambridge. He noted that just like Cambridge, Makerere is a collegiate university with 10 constituent colleges and is home to the best and most vibrant faculty on the African continent, with over 60% PhD holders.

“Makerere is also a vibrant research institution and is ranked second in Africa in terms of research output and publications. Our research agenda targets both national and regional challenges such as climate change, high population growth rates, food security and emerging diseases,” said Prof. Nawangwe.

The Vice Chancellor added that as a result, Makerere is world renowned for research in tropical diseases and the breeding of fast maturing, drought tolerant and disease resistant crop varieties. “Makerere University went collegiate to streamline her academic and research functions. Our research output has increased as a result and a college review is underway to see how we can perfect the system.”

R-L: Mr. Augustine Tamale, Mr. Benson Barigye, Mrs. Dorothy Zake, Mr. Alfred Masikye Namoah and Mr. Cyriaco Kabagambe are some of the members of Management that attended the meeting

Dame Barbara Stocking in her remarks expressed her happiness at visiting Makerere and congratulated the Vice Chancellor and staff upon the fruitful collaborations with Cambridge and all other universities. She noted that the Cambridge-Africa programme had serious ongoing partnerships in the names of THRiVE (Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence) and CAPREx (Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence) and these were going to be further strengthened.

She added that despite the availability for PhD and Masters scholarships tenable at Cambridge, there were few applicants from sub-Saharan Africa. “Our visits to Kenya and Uganda this month are to help us clearly understand why scholars from this region aren’t successfully taking up these opportunities.”
Reiterating her colleagues point, Mrs. Helen Pennant shared that the Cambridge Trust and Gates Cambridge Trust are an opportunity to address the imbalance of few Graduate students from sub-Saharan Africa in general and Makerere in particular.

“The Gates Cambridge Trust offers 100 fully funded scholarships for PhD study which cover tuition fees and other allowances and for the Ugandan scholars, the offer also covers the airfare” enthused Mrs. Pennant. She however recognised the importance of the Alumni chapter engaging directly with prospective students and shared that sessions for applicants to be held later on the same day would feature four former students, including Dr. John Kitayimbwa an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics.

L-R: Dr. Samuel Majalija, Ms. Frances Nyachwo, Assoc. Prof. Charles Ibingira, Dr. Ronald Bisaso, Prof. Henry Alinaitwe, Dr. Vincent Ssembatya, Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza and Mrs. Helen Pennant at the meeting

“The Gates Cambridge scholarship further looks at how much leadership potential the applicants have and how much they have already done for their communities” said Dame Stocking, further adding “There is no reason why we should have more Ugandans securing these opportunities.”

Prof. Nelson Sewankambo is the Director of the THRiVE Consortium at Makerere University. Weighing in on the day’s discussion, he observed that his last nine years at the helm of the consortium had been the most exciting and rewarding of his years spent at Makerere. THRiVE has been able to sponsor a number of PhD students from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda and currently has four PhD and two Postdoctoral students on scholarship.

“The reason why students from Uganda and Makerere in particular are not featuring highly in Cambridge’s scholarship awards is because they imagine that the standards are too high. It is therefore important that members of the alumni share their personal experiences with these applicants” said Prof. Sewankambo.

CAPREx is a tripartite collaboration involving the University of Cambridge, University of Ghana, Legon and Makerere University. The programme started in 2012 and has so far supported 65 Academic Fellowships, 34 from Makerere University and 31 from the University of Ghana. The Director of Research and Graduate Training-Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza who coordinated the visit acknowledged that Dame Stocking’s and Mrs. Pennant’s coming to Makerere brought the foundations of the application process closer to Uganda. He observed that although the CAPREx programme started at a slow pace, it has since picked up as applicants are better informed of the opportunities.

Vice Chancellor-Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe (R) receives a Cambridge souvenir from Mrs. Helen Pennant after the meeting

In her concluding remarks, Dame Stocking acknowledged that although Cambridge’s ancient buildings, application fees and English tests were a put-off for many applicants, it was important that the alumni help to walk the prospective applicants through the process. She also urged all academic referees to write helpful supporting letters as these greatly boosted the applicant’s chances of being selected.

The Vice Chancellor once again thanked Dame Stocking and Mrs. Pennant for their visit, noting that the tips they had shared during the interaction were very helpful. “Uganda is the centre of Africa. It has ethnic groupings from almost all parts of the continent and once you have studied Uganda, you have studied Africa. Makerere should be the coordinating centre for Cambridge in Africa as we look forward to exploring more collaborations” concluded Prof. Nawangwe.

At the end of the meeting attended by Members of Management, Directors and Principals of Colleges, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe handed over Makerere souvenirs to ladies and received a Cambridge souvenir from Mrs. Pennant.

Article by Public Relations Office

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.

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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

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