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Student presents gift to Prof. Nawangwe: He acknowledges VC’s efforts in maintaining the University’s pride and importance

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“I present this gift to you as a sign of appreciation for your tremendous role in nurturing students and your efforts in maintaining the University’s pride and importance. Your relationship with students is indeed well paying. This is my work, through which I have been able to pay my tuition and facilitate myself for the three years I have been here.” This is how overwhelmed Joseph Kayongo started his conversation when he met his Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe. 

Mr. Kayongo Joseph, hitherto an undergraduate student of Social Sciences, visited the Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe on Friday, 11th May 2018 at his office. He acknowledged the Vice Chancellor’s love and dedicated efforts towards a better Makerere when he said, “I have been following your work ever since I joined Makerere University. By then you were the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration. Your passion for this institution’s wellbeing is well expressed in your speeches and writings. That is why I have decided to present this gift to you Professor.”

Kayongo presenting his products to the Vice Chancellor.

The Vice Chancellor thanked Mr. Kayongo for recognising his efforts at the University and equally appreciated his visit. Overjoyed to see his branded gift, labelled Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof Nawangwe acknowledged Kayongo’s talent and creativity. He strongly commended his brilliance and zeal to start a business that has enabled him to meet his academic goals.  

“I am so happy that this early morning, I am receiving a wonderful gift moreover from my student. My weekend is well made. The story about your academic journey is so inspiring. I am happy that you did not sit back but rather looked for opportune ways of supporting yourself,” he said.

Prof. Nawangwe recognised Kayongo’s innovative ideas and acclaimed the quality of the products he makes. Through various research and innovation programs, Makerere University has supported students’ innovations with the aim of finding solutions to community challenges. “I am impressed that Kayongo is not going to look for jobs. He created his own job and he is ready to employ more people.  I really acknowledge his hard work,” he said.

The well branded gift that  Kayongo presented to the Vice Chancellor.

Born in 1994 in Kayunga District, Joseph Kayongo’s parents never got a chance to see their son grow into the hardworking and inspiring young man he is today. In an exclusive interview with Makerere University Public Relations Office, Kayongo revealed that he was not able to receive the basic needs any child could desire to have after his father died in 1995 and his mother followed shortly in 1996. He was left in the hands of his paternal grandmother who used to sell agricultural products to raise his school fees and cater for the household needs.  Through his grandmother’s efforts, he was able to finish senior six at YALE Secondary School Kayunga. Although he passed with good grades, he had little hope of joining university since he missed out on government sponsorship.

According to Kayongo, his dream was to join Makerere University and study Social Sciences with the aim of serving communities. The long vacation after senior six examinations gave him room to prepare himself for university.

“During my S.6 vacation, I engaged in agricultural activities. My grandmother had a big chunk of land where I planted maize. I was able to get a reasonable amount of money to help me start with registration at campus and to come to Kampala and start a life. I knew I could not sustain myself and raise school fees while digging in the village.  I knew that I needed a job in town. So I had to budget the money I got from selling my produce well,” he narrated.

The Vice Chancellor interacting with Kayongo.

Joining the shoe making business

Kayongo said that he picked interest in making craft shoes during his senior six vacation. He bought the idea from a neighbour in Kayunga who was doing the same business. “When I approached Mr. Sserwadda, he was willing to teach me how to make craft shoes. It is this idea that first crossed my mind when I thought of a business in Kampala that would sustain my academic needs. My focus was on high quality products, so I made a survey and realised that I could only get good leather and rubber materials from Jinja. That is how I started the business,” he said.

“I made shoes and vended them around campus. I decided to also penetrate markets around the university. Vending is not easy but I persisted. I just needed to plan my time well, well knowing that I needed both money and books. I had to balance the two because the main reason why I joined the business was to raise school fees. I could not see myself failing to excel in my exams or failing to raise the tuition. I had to ensure that I raised the tuition while finding time for my books,” he added.

With his degree in the bag, Kayongo has no plans of looking for a job.  He is focused on expanding his business and tapping into both local and international markets. He has been able to introduce his products to different shops and supermarkets where he has been assured of market because of their good quality. 

Kayongo ensures that he uses pure leather and rubber materials as that is what makes his products unique. Additionally,  he has been able to secure a good machine that guarantees his quality. He is looking at employing more people when the business expands. He has so far trained 7 peers who help him make his products.

How he meets the market demand? 

Kayongo said that, in the beginning the market was limited; he had to look for clients and only produced based on the market demand. However, today he even receives special orders from clients. “Shoe making is an easy task; all it needs is interest and purpose. I can make a pair of high quality shoes in just 3 hours. Secondly I have introduced other products such as wallets, belts, and hand bags to meet the demand. I hope for the best and my dream is to own a very big business of leather products with more employees. After this, I can safely say that I have impacted my community,” he concluded. 

Article by Nabatte Proscovia, Public Relations Office

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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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