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Experts in Mathematics emphasize the need to create sustainable networks to Strengthen Research in Universities

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Experts in mathematics have emphasized the need to create sustainable groups and networks to strengthen Research in Universities. This was at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Network Meeting for Sida and ISP-Funded PhD Students and Postdocs in Mathematics; held on Monday 20th August 2018 at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel Entebbe, Uganda.  The meeting was officially opened by the Vice Chancellor of Makerere University Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe represented by the Director of Research and Graduate Training Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza. 

Participants posing for the photo.

The 3rd Network Meeting for Sida and International Science Programme (ISP) funded PhD Students and Postdocs in mathematics brought together over 100 PhD students and Postdoctoral fellows in Mathematics from African partner universities; supervisors and mentors; senior researchers; and coordinators from the Sida bilateral programs, ISP core program and Swedish senior researchers with the aim of strengthening and encouraging collaborative research in Mathematics. The Meeting will run from 20th -24th August 2018 under a theme: Strengthening Research in Mathematics in Universities with Sida and ISP Support.  

According to the Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee Prof. John Mango, the five days’ workshop brings together participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Finland, German, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Rwanda, Sudan, Sweden, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Participants will lay a strategy and develop research agendas on effective and efficient joint publication; and joint applications for research funding. “I am happy to report on the training of 21 staff members at Makerere, Busitema, Gulu, Mbarara and Kyambogo at the Doctoral level in mathematics and the training of 9 Postdocs. This is clearly a bumper harvest from the Swedish support to Mathematics in our country” he said.

The Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee Prof. John Mango.

Prof. Mango reiterated that the network of researchers as a platform also provides a forum for interaction of PhD, Postdoc students and researchers in mathematics supported by Sida and ISP; with a view of sharing experiences and creating sustainable research groups and networks.

The Principal of the College of Natural Sciences Prof. J.Y.T Mugisha appreciated the Government of Sweden for the support it extends to public universities in Uganda. The Principal also thanked the organizing committee as well as the funders of the meeting for ensuring that the event is successful.   Prof. Mugisha noted that this is a great opportunity for networking and collaborating for the researchers attending the meeting. ‘It is rare to have all the senior scientists in one place and thus the young researchers should use this meeting to start work with the seniors present here’. He further welcomed the participants to Uganda and wished them a peaceful stay in Uganda.

In a speech read by Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza, the Vice Chancellor of Makerere University Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, commended the great work of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in promoting collaborations in mathematics between universities in Eastern and Southern Africa. 

Prof. Martin Singull making a presentation.

“Such collaborations will involve joint publications, joint applications for funding, sharing of human resources for teaching and supervision, and joint arrangements of conferences and workshops. These efforts are key for a continued sustainable development of mathematics in Eastern and Southern Africa,” he said.

Prof. Nawangwe urged mathematicians in their research groups to carry out research dissemination and translation of outputs into policy briefs when he said, “I know that in applied mathematics and mathematical statistics, researchers collect plenty of raw data, but many times these are not translated or transformed into desired outcomes to be able to serve the reasons for which they are gathered. I therefore urge you to direct your research in areas relevant to your national development goals in order for mathematics to play the role it without any doubt should.”

He acknowledged the support of the Swedish government to Makerere University that has been monumental and critical to the realization of the University’s core functions of teaching and learning, research and innovations, and partnerships and networking. 

Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza addressing participants.

“The support has also greatly improved the research culture in mathematics at Makerere University with an increase of publications in recognized international journals and active participation in international conferences. In the past two decades we have built capacity on PhD, Postdocs and masters level. Therefore, doing research together we will achieve more, help us in laying the strategies and develop research agendas at national and regional levels,” he said. 

Prof. Mango as Chairperson Local Organizing committee was commended for bringing the event to Uganda and Makerere University in particular. The 1st and 2nd network meetings were held in Sweden. Prof Mango has spearheaded many development initiatives in the Mathematics Department in the past two decades. These initiatives have seen many staff in the department trained to PhD and Postdoc levels in Uganda and the region. 

Prof. Mango commended the following members of the Organizing Committee for their selfless service: Prof Kasozi Juma-Makerere University, Dr Silvester Rugeihyamu-University of Dar es salaam, Dr Tembo Isaac-University of Zambia, Dr Minani-University of Rwanda, Dr Eunice Mureithi-University of Dar es salaam, Dr Betty Nannyonga-Makerere University, Dr Mirumbe Ismail-Makerere University and Dr Ssevviiri David-Makerere University.

Some of the participants during the meeting.

Highlighting the importance of mathematics in solving societal challenges, Prof. Leif Abrahamsson Director of Mathematical Sciences at ISP said mathematics is an imperative tool that drives all other science subject. Prof. Leif also mentioned that Mathematics is so helpful in solving societal problems. 

“Its functions might be hidden but we need mathematics to solve societal problems. You will find mathematics in financial institutions, political sectors, business entities and also in the health sector. We have on several occasion used mathematics to find solutions to some of the epidemic diseases such as Ebola and HIV/AIDS,” he stated.

Prof. Bengt Ove Turesson, from Linköping University-Sweden; Department of Mathematics (MAI), emphasized the need to provide career guidance when training mathematics in schools. “Questions like what am I going to do after studying mathematics should be clearly answered during the career guidance sessions so that a student understands some of the opportunities available when he or she studies the mathematics. We should also encourage the construction of resource centres for teachers at various education levels where mathematics teachers will come together and discuss the several ways of improving mathematics,” he mentioned. 

The Head, Department of Mathematics at Makerere University Dr. David Ssevviiri, described mathematics as a language of basic sciences “It is a language for engineers and all science based fields. We should interest the learners when teaching it,” he said.

Ms Ritah Namisango, the Principal Public Relations Officer of Makerere University appealing to the mathematicians to come up with strategies aimed at popularizing mathematics at all levels.

Dr. Betty Nanyonga Kivumbi said that she is one of the three lucky female lecturers at the Department of Mathematics, Makerere University. She therefore, cited the need to empower and mentor girls to have equal access to and success in mathematics “As a department of Mathematics at Makerere University we felt it needful to engage in outreach programs such as visiting schools and talk to girls and teachers, we have organized the mathematics marathon and we started a regional network to promote basic sciences,” Dr. Nanyonga explained.

Ms Ritah Namisango, the Principal Public Relations Officer of Makerere University appealed to the mathematicians to come up with strategies aimed at popularizing mathematics at all levels. “Mathematics is a vital subject, but a number of interactions with pupils and students indicate that most of them fear the subject. I am happy to note that we have over 100 participants from Africa and Europe in this room. I appeal to you to come up with innovative ways of making mathematics attractive,” remarked Ms Namisango. 

In East Africa, Sida has supported mathematics since 2007 through bilateral programmes in Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Tanzania. The support is mainly for capacity building at PhD and Postdoc levels. ISP support in mathematics started almost two decades ago with the aim of building capacity and improving on the state of mathematics in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.

Article by: Mak 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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