The African Regional Standards Organisation (ARSO) is running a university essay competition under the Theme: “Role of Quality Infrastructure and Standardisation in facilitating Trade and sustainable Development within the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA)". The Competition will have 3 categories of winners at the National, Regional and Continental levels.
The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) as a member of ARSO is organizing the competition at the National level.
To participate, please see Downloads for Form1 below, fill it out, scan it and submit it immediately as you continue to write your essay to Joel Peter Oryang on email peter.oryang@unbs.go.ug. This will enable UNBS to follow up on you as you write your essay.
You are also advised to read the Concept Note and Mark Sheet at Downloads below to help you submit an essay that best meets the requirements.
ALL Candidates should submit their Essays to UNBS (peter.oryang@unbs.go.ug) by 9th March 2018 for National assessment. The national assessment will result into Top 5 candidates that will be submitted to ARSO Central Secretariat by 21st March 2018 for the regional competition.
Entry Rules and Conditions
1. This competition is open to Citizens of all African Countries below the age of 35 years living in Africa and studying in a university/college recog-nised by the local commission for university education or equivalent body in their countries
2. Length of essays : Essays should be between 1000 and 1200 words
3. Presentation: Essays should be double spaced and presented in Century Gothic, size 12
4. Language of essays: Essays may be submitted in English or French
5. Information on the author: Authors may use up to 50 words to describe themselves. Information should include their names, course and year of study, name, town and country in which their university is located. (N. B: this will not be part of the 1000- 1200 words)
6. Contacts of authors: Authors should provide us with their postal, physical, telephone and email addresses on the first page of the essay together with the title of the essay and information on the author. Also kindly attach a copy of the Identity Card or pass port and a completely filled reg-istration form that can be obtained from Apex (www.apextrainingafrica.org) and ARSO (www.arso-oran.org)
7. Eligibility
The following essays are not eligible for this competition:
• Essays that have been shown or accepted for other competitions.
• Essays that have been published in any form.
• Essays that focus on the work of a particular person, organization or brand name.
8. Number of essays to submitted: Participants are only allowed to submit one essay.
Good luck and please share this widely with all your networks.
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.
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 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.
Prof. Julius Kikooma – Director of Graduate Training
“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.