General
Mak Evaluates Continuous Improvement Drive as Self Assessment Report 2017 is Disseminated
The Quality Assurance Directorate (QAD) at a breakfast meeting held on Thursday, 10th May 2017 disseminated findings of the second Makerere University Self-assessment Report 2017. The meeting which brought together members of University Management, Principals and key stakeholders such as the Guild President was also attended by the Chairperson Council, Eng. Dr. Charles Wana-Etyem.
Welcoming participants to the meeting, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe commended QAD for conducting the assessment and helping Makerere University “to know where we are coming from so as to help us review our strategic direction.”
“In future, in addition to the three core functions of teaching and learning, research and innovations and knowledge transfer partnerships and networking, we should also begin looking at things affecting the University such as; public image, ethics and integrity and discipline” added Prof. Nawangwe.
Before delving into presentation of the report, the Director QAD, Dr. Vincent Ssembatya thanked the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for supporting the first and second self-assessment exercises. He also acknowledged the support received from the Director, Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT)-Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi and Director, Planning and Development Department (PDD)-Dr. Florence Nakayiwa as well as QAD staff during compilation of the report.
“In addition to being a key quality assurance mechanism, the self-assessment exercise is used to re-examine the trajectory the university is on in terms of institutional progress. The second exercise has been done five years after the university instituted the collegiate structure that in turn came after major institutional reforms” added Dr. Ssembatya.
Key highlights of the report showed a decline in the total student population attributed to factors such as a changing curriculum, deliberate reductions by some colleges owing to reduced teaching capacity, introduction of new universities and other risk factors such as bad publicity and staff and student unrest. Despite the reductions, Makerere still accounts for 48% of students enrolled in public universities and receives 58% of the budget allocated to Higher Education Institutions supported by the government.
Mak as the premier university also continues to offer a comprehensive curriculum, with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) accounting for 35% of enrollment. The university is striving to achieve the 40% target in STEM, which is considered a strong factor in accelerating economic development.
Further breaking down the enrollment, Dr. Ssembatya illustrated that Mak is a truly national university, with students originating from 90 of Uganda’s 121 districts. He further shared that on the gender front, the districts of Kampala and Wakiso tend to contribute more female than male students and the top 10 districts by enrollment all present a balanced gender distribution; perhaps illustrating that gender balance tends to follow academic excellence and the degree of penetration of education in the community.
On the research front, the exercise showed that Mak’s output continues to grow, with the institution now way past the 1,000 publications per year mark, also achieving the 1 publication per academic staff per year ratio in the last five years,. Nevertheless, Dr. Ssembatya observed that there was need to improve our Internationalisation aspect by addressing the decline in international students admitted as well as the need to recruit international staff.
The report further highlighted the need to boost the graduate student population so as to create a critical mass of specialists for the nation through graduate training. Dr. Ssembatya also commended DRGT and the University Library (MakLib) for the advent of Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETD) submission by academic staff and students, noting that this would further boost the University’s ranking.
In the reactions that followed, the Vice Chancellor thanked QAD for raising the bar of dissemination a notch higher each passing year by producing more analytical reports. He nevertheless expressed hope that analyses especially on enrollment will at an opportune time be presented to officials in Government so as to better inform policy making.
“Our role as Makerere University should be to conduct research that helps our Government to understand what problems our education sector faces and provide advice on how the negative trends can be reversed,” advised Prof. Nawangwe in reference to the alarming drops in admissions with each progression to a higher level of education.
Other reactions from the audience although applauding the increased government subvention called for a reciprocal funding for research, a domain that is currently dominated by support from development partners. These also called for a need to assess the equipment and laboratory facilities in the Science-based colleges so as to evaluate the effect of obsolete teaching aids on the quality of graduates.
On the subject of student internships, reactions called for the institution of campus-based innovation centres in partnership with both public and private players, so as to boost the practical skills of our graduates. In the same vein, calls were made for the introduction of modern teaching courses for academic staff in areas such as blended learning, competency-based teaching and many others, so as to improve the learning experience of today’s scholar.
Bringing the breakfast meeting to a close, the Chairperson Council once again thanked Dr. Ssembatya and QAD for inviting him to take stock of the University’s performance. Eng. Dr. Wana-Etyem further welcomed the Guild President H.E. Papa Were Salim and expressed readiness to receive his personal contribution to discussions at the next Council meeting.
“The University Council is here to serve you and as such, is largely made up of members representing various associations and bodies in Makerere University. All our policies and decisions are arrived at by consensus because our sessions are participatory” elaborated Eng. Dr. Charles Wana-Etyem.
Reacting to some issues raised by the self-assessment and the responses that followed, the Chairperson reiterated Council’s commitment to ensuring that facilities that are vital for quality teaching and learning will be strengthened. “We are also keen to provide any kind of affirmative action for the colleges that may not be publishing as much as the others so please, let us know through the respective channels” he added.
Eng. Dr. Wana-Etyem concluded his remarks and the breakfast meeting by appealing to all staff and students to ensure that Council decisions reach their constituencies so as to create ownership for University policies and together, maintain Makerere on a steady course to reach greater heights.
Article by Public Relations Office
The Gender Mainstreaming Directorate (GMD), Makerere University on 14th September 2021 presented findings from phase one of the study on Enhancing Women’s Participation and Visibility in Leadership and Decision-Making Organs of Public Universities in Uganda through Action Research. The study team led by the Director GMD and Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. Euzobia Mugisha Baine also consists of Assoc. Prof. Consolata Kabonesa, Dr. Anna Ninsiima, Ms. Frances Nyachwo, Ms. Susan Mbabazi and Mr. Eric Tumwesigye.
The team is also made of coordinators from participating Universities such as Busitema University-Ms. Elizabeth Birabwa, Kabale University-Sr. Dr. Eva Tumusiime, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST)-Dr. Specioza Twinamasiko, Muni University-Ms. Amandru Stella Wawa, and Gulu Univeristy-Sr. Rosalba Aciro.
Funded by the Government of Uganda through the Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF), the study was inspired by the fact that women are persistently few in numbers as staff, more so in leadership and decision-making organs of Ugandan Public Universities. “This is despite all the various efforts at national and international levels; the numbers are not growing as fast as needed to meet development goals of the country” explained Dr. Euzobia.
Based on this background, the study team therefore sought to conduct a situational analysis of the gender terrain of the six public universities to obtain baseline information encompassing the composition of governance and leadership organs and senior staff by sex, as well as a needs assessment and profiles of potential mentors and mentees.
Furthermore, the team sought to explore the capacity to conduct gender-responsive research as well as the role of male staff engagement in gender equity interventions within the universities as the drivers of development.
Dr. Mugisha-Baine shared that results of the baseline would then be used to design participatory training manuals or guides on gender and leadership. The manuals would cover; Institutionalized mentorship, How to conduct gender-responsive research, gender and equity budgeting, among others.
“Within these manuals, we shall have a male staff engagement strategy in gender equity interventions in universities” she explained.
The development of the aforementioned materials would then be followed by their adoption and use to build capacity for women not only in leadership of participating and other public university but also beyond. “We shall periodically evaluate whether the capacity we have built has influenced women’s participation in leadership and decision-making organs of the university” supplemented the PI.
The capacity building trainings for women, it is envisaged, will lay the foundation for the formation of a functional Uganda University Women’s Think Tank, starting with the six participating universities. Dr. Mugisha Baine added that through this Think Tank, a monitoring and tracking system for gender representation in recruitment, promotion, retention/turnover and leadership of public universities shall be established and maintained.
At the conclusion of phase one, the study team had drafted participatory training manuals in gender and leadership with content on; gender specific critical analysis of the leadership spectrum of public universities, positioning of individual women within the institutional framework and strategies for their advancement, gender equity advocacy in the university setting, institutional mentorship, building capacity in conducting gender-responsive research, among others.
“This content will be validated by the participating universities before the actual research training is conducted” added the PI.
On behalf of the research team, Dr. Mugisha Baine thanked the Government of Uganda for providing the resources that facilitated phase one of the study and prayed that the Mak-RIF Grants Management Committee (GMC) would support the next phase of capacity building.
Speaking on behalf of the Mak-RIF GMC Chairperson, Prof. William Bazeyo, Dr. Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala thanked and congratulated the team led by the Director GMD upon the milestones registered in the critical research.
“We are very proud of that work that is being done by all researchers in Mak-RIF and we would like to most sincerely thank Management for all the support throughout this process” she remarked.
Dr. Nkabala encouraged the research team to continue disseminating and using the findings for the furtherance of gender mainstreaming, particularly through the aspect of male staff engagement in gender equity interventions.
Prior to delivering the keynote address of the day, the Executive Director National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) Prof. Mary Okwakol thanked the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe for inviting her to the important forum, noting that women’s participation in decision making and governance is a priority area of the Uganda Gender Policy 2007.
She commended Makerere University for being at the forefront of gender mainstreaming in Uganda, noting that this prominence was one of the reasons why the Gender in Education Policy 2007 provides for replicating the institution’s strategy in all other Higher Education Institutions.
Prof. Okwakol whose keynote address was punctuated incisive personal examples reaffirmed the statistics that women are generally not visible in leadership of Universities. That notwithstanding, in instances where they rise to leadership and decision-making positions, they are regularly subject to roles traditionally deemed as women’s inconsiderate of their managerial seniority and experience.
She nevertheless rallied the women to play their respective roles in enhancing participation and visibility at a personal level. The following were some of the strategies she proposed; work hard to acquire academic credentials so as to compete favourably with men, acquire necessary administrative training and experience, network among women, join professional networks as well as do research and publish.
On joining professional networks, she shared her personal experience as a young zoologist who joined UNESCO’s Tropical Biology and Fertility Programme. “Within a short time I was appointed Coordinator for Africa and after two years, I was elected as a Member of the International Board of Management. After serving for two years, I became Vice Chairperson of that Board and finally I became Chairperson of that International Board.”
At the institutional level, Prof. Okwakol appealed to the Chairperson Council and Vice Chancellor to proactively recruit women who meet the requirements for leadership positions even if it means actively seeking out the reluctant ones. In this regard, she shared that it would be useful for the university to develop a database of women and their qualifications to ease this process.
She shared that NCHE has in recognition of female underrepresentation at every level in Higher Education approved the establishment of a Gender and Equity Unit with the aim of promoting inclusive gender participation in the sub-sector.
“This unit has been placed under the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Accreditation which implies that as we look out for and regulate quality, gender will be a very important aspect of that regulation” she reassured.
Prof. Okwakol concluded by urging participants to read the; Third National Development Plan (NDPIII), Uganda Vision 2040, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) noting that there is no way all three can be achieved while women are left behind because they each make a case for inclusion of the female gender.
“What we are addressing here are historical injustices” said Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe as he commenced his remarks, “And in the case of Makerere University, it is well known that the institution started as a male-only institution and we all know the original motto was ‘Let us be men’” he added.
Citing examples from history such as; Marie Curie – one of the smartest physicists, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and Cleopatra – prominent Pharaohs of Egypt, George Eliot, Rosa Luxemburg and Hypatia – all great philosophers as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel – first female Chancellor of Germany, the Vice Chancellor said there is no plausible argument that there are things women cannot do as well as their male counterparts.
He said it was against this knowledge and in a bid to correct historical injustices that Makerere University pioneered initiatives such as putting in place affirmative action for girls, establishing a Gender Mainstreaming Directorate as well as a School of Women and Gender Studies. The Vice Chancellor nevertheless stressed the need to go beyond pioneering to protecting these gains through legislation. “Historically we have seen that discrimination can only be addressed by laws and policies.”
Prof. Nawangwe thanked the Government for providing funds to support Mak-RIF as well as the Funds GMC and Secretariat for ensuring that these funds are put to good use. He equally thanked the Chairperson of Council, Mrs. Lorna Magara for her not only her support but also sparing time to attend a good number of the research dissemination events.
Delivering the concluding remarks, Mrs. Magara acknowledged that the study was timely and relevant the contemporary University, as one of the critical drivers of the national and international development agenda. She therefore reechoed the Vice Chancellor’s thanks to the Government of Uganda for generously supporting the University’s research through Mak-RIF.
Turning to the keynote speaker she said, “I thank Prof. Okwakol for ardently discussing the critical issues affecting the female gender, the strategies to overcome the challenges, including sharing her inspiring personal experiences.”
Mrs. Magara equally thanked Prof. Okwakol for her very instructional analysis, providing mentorship guidance with the resultant impact of enhancing the female gender in decision-making positions. In the same breath she congratulated the PI and her team upon successfully concluding phase one of the project.
“Phase one has generated insights in understanding the status of women in leadership in public universities, the legal and policy framework and its implications on women’s visibility, the institutional mentoring systems and the gaps therein” she observed.
The Chairperson of Council acknowledged that the challenge of underrepresentation of women in leadership roles cannot be resolved at an individual level. She therefore advocated for broad based strategies that can address deep-seated structural and cultural biases facing women. “These include developing mentorship networks, enacting laws and policies that address the imbalances and providing training programmes to address the leadership gaps.”
She therefore pledged the University Council’s unwavering support to the Gender Mainstreaming Programme by ensuring an enabling policy environment that facilitates gender-responsive teaching, learning, research innovation and community service.
The research dissemination was moderated by the Principal Public Relations Officer (PRO), Ms. Ritah Namisango and the Director Communications, Learning and Knowledge Management, ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) and PRO Mak-RIF, Ms. Harriet Adong.
