A delegation of six led by the President of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU), Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien, on Wednesday, 10th October 2018 visited Makerere University and paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor. They were received by on behalf of Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe by the Acting Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Dr. Ernest Okello Ogwang, The Principal College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), Prof. Tonny Oyana and the International Office’s Ms. Martha Muwanguzi.

In her remarks, Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien thanked Dr. Okello Ogwang for according the delegation a warm welcome to Makerere University. She shared that her University’s interests are to deepen its cooperation in the educational landscape of developing countries such as Uganda in order to strengthen the long term development of effective educational infrastructure.

“The the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt started the KUganda project in the 2011/2012 period under the name – The Challenge of Education in Uganda and we were able to gather valuable practical experience in the area of urgently required teacher training in a developing country” said Prof. Dr. Gien.

She added that every year, students from KU travel to Uganda where they learn firsthand the challenges affecting pupils and teachers in midst of political upheavals and economic barriers.

“This is why the objective of the project is and has always been to organise workshops and discussion sessions for the teachers in Uganda in which they get the chance for further professional development offered by KU lecturers and teaching degree students” added the President.

KU has eight faculties of; Theology, Philosophy and Education, Languages and Literatures, History and Social Sciences, Mathematics and Geography, Religious Education, Social Work, as well as Economics and Business Administration. The University also has a network of over 250 partner universities in 57 countries in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania where students spend time studying abroad.

Dr. Okello Ogwang thanked the President and her delegation for their visit and the various activities being undertaken as part of the KUganda project. He observed that KU with the largely Humanities and Social Sciences-based faculties had fertile grounds on which to collaborate with Makerere University.

 
“Our International Office will follow up with the various academic units to nominate contact persons who will then come up with an overall coordinator to explore immediate and future opportunities of collaboration. I am personally covered under Languages and Literature” remarked the DVCAA.
 
In the interactions that followed, Thomas Sporer, Director of The Centre of Educational Innovation and Knowledge Transfer at KU shared about the Service Learning in Higher Education project. He explained that Service Learning aims to promote social engagement and academic learning so as to conduct research with society and for society and hoped that the two institutions would collaborate in this area.

In the responses that followed, Prof. Tonny Oyana thanked the President and her delegation for tabling various areas under which Makerere and KU can undertake research and particularly hoped that areas such as Service Learning would be given priority within a year.

 
In the concluding remarks, Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien thanked Makerere University for the warm reception and hoped to use KU’s influence to extend an invitation to the German Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Müller to visit Makerere.

The KU delegation which was additionally made up of the Chair of Elementary/Primary Education-Prof. Dr. Klaudia Schultheis, Director of the Department of Development and Communication-Dr. Christian Klenk, Chair of Didactics of Religion, Catechetics and Religious Education- Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kropač and Research Advisor-Simone Rieger later on exchanged souvenirs with the DVCAA.

Article by Public Relations Office