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Mak 69th Graduation Kicks Off: President Museveni Honoured

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Makerere University has awarded the President of the Republic of Uganda and Visitor, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with her Outstanding Scholarly Authorship Award. Handed over to him by the Makerere University Chancellor, Prof. Ezra Suruma during the first session of the 69th Graduation Ceremony on Tuesday, 15th January 2019, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was recognized for his authorship of Katondoozi, the first ever Thesaurus in the sub-Saharan region.
 
Katondoozi is a Thesaurus of Runyankore-Rukiga written in an indigenous African language. It is a complete granary for the Runyankore-Rukiga, that shows the richness of a language, by displaying a rich and unique vocabulary. This great and original publication was product of a team of scholarly co-authors, namely, Dr. Gilbert Gumoshabe, Prof. Manuel J.K.Muranga and Ms. Alice N. Muhoozi.

President Museveni is one of the few Africans that have championed the documentation of indigenous languages to ensure their survival, as cultures that face global pressure. His authorship of the book of a magnitude 20,000 words is an eye opener to the entire African community that African languages, cultures and values can be preserved and promoted.

Prof. Elly Sabiiti reads the Citation for the Outstanding Scholarly Authorship Award to H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

“We have to note that there is no way you can preserve a language if it is not written. This publication can stimulate other writers to publish books in the indigenous languages and these books would be used as references in the education system in order to benefit the future generations,” said Prof Elly N Sabiiti when reading the President’s Citation.

In his acceptance speech, the President thanked Makerere University for recognizing his work. He appreciated his co-authors for doing a great job to ensure that the book is up to standard.

This year 2019, a total of 13,350 students will be awarded degrees and diplomas of Makerere University in various disciplines. Of these, 56 will receive PhDs, 1,254 Masters Degrees and 101 Postgraduate Diplomas, while 11,939 will receive undergraduate diplomas and Bachelors Degrees. 49.7% of the graduands are men and 50.3% are female; and 364 students will be graduating with First Class Honours.

H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni receives his Award from Chancellor, Prof. Ezra Suruma (Left) as the First Lady, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni (Right) applauds

During the first session, graduands from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS), College  of Health Sciences (CHS) and the College of Education and External Studies (CEES) were conferred upon degrees and awarded diplomas of Makerere University.  Among these, was the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze who graduated with a Masters degree in Public Health and H.E. Kato Paul, the former Makerere University Guild President who graduated with the Bachelors of Arts in Education.

President of Museveni congratulated the graduands upon reaching the remarkable milestone. He commended staff and community for shepherding students throughout the course of studies.

He advised students to understand their field of study and focus on their area of priority if they are to succeed professionally. “Whether you are studying sciences, social sciences or humanities, you need to understand your field, prioritize your interests and focus on the achievable goals,” he said.

President Museveni shakes hands with the Chairperson of Council-Mrs. Lorna Magara (Left) shortly after she presented the Convocation Award and an assortment of Mak souvenirs to him

 According to President Museveni, there is need for students to organize themselves both academically and professionally to have a successful career paths.

“If you don’t fall under sciences; the categories that can easily get you a job, do not be despondent. You can progress by joining a youth program and access a grant or an interest free loan or a loan with interest from the government and you start up a maize processing operation. This way, you would have created a job and employed people,” he said.

The President further cited the need to streamline the education system emphasizing the importance of teaching and learning of Africa’s history and wellbeing.  According to him, if teaching is done purposefully and correctly in the African way of understanding, then the continent shall have rapid growth and developments.  

President Yoweri Museveni (Centre) and First Lady, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni (2nd Right) pose for a group photo with Co-Authors L-R: Ms. Alice N. Muhoozi, Prof. Manuel J.K.Muranga and Dr. Gilbert Gumoshabe (Right)

“Our education system should have very clear aims. The disciplines of social sciences philosophy, history should dwell more on African history and developments. Even if you are a scientist you should understand the history of Africa before you understand, manipulate and tame the natural forces and laws for the benefit of man,” he explained.

He acknowledged Makerere University’s leadership in fighting the war of capacity building and reinforcing discipline among staff and students at the great institution.

The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni congratulated H.E the President upon his outstanding recognition. She thanked him for his tremendous support towards building the education system of the country; leading by example in scholarly writing and also developing the African culture through preserving its language.

The First Lady, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni receives the Convocation Award from Chairperson Council-Mrs. Lorna Magara (Left) in recognition of her contribution to girl child education, women emancipation and overall success of the Higher Education sector in Uganda

She commended Makerere University for being at the forefront of Uganda’s education and human resource development through academic excellence, research and innovation.

Makerere University is reclaiming its position in providing solutions to African challenges through the commendable innovations and research that have relevance and a positive impact on the wellbeing of the people of Uganda,” stated the First Lady.
 
The Chancellor, Prof. Ezra Suruma commended Makerere University staff and students for the cutting edge research they are conducting that has led to distinguished awards and maintained Makerere University’s global reputation as a leading research institution.

Some of the PhD Graduands who received their awards during the first session of the 69th Graduation of Makerere University, Kampala Uganda

He thanked His Excellency the President and the Government of Uganda, for being the single most important financier of Makerere University. In the same spirit, he recognized the contributions of the development partners and other stakeholders of Makerere University when he said, “In addition to the growing financial support from the Government, contributions from our development partners are also on an upward trend. This support has enabled Makerere to achieve additional improvements in infrastructure as well as in staff and student welfare.”

The Chancellor extended sincere gratitude to the parents, guardians, teachers, mentors and friends of the graduates. He urged graduands to cherish and honor the sacrifices their parents, teachers, sponsors and guardians have made to achieve the great milestone.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe emphasized the need to maintain discipline among students.

“No university can fully utilize her potential in an environment where indiscipline prevails. We will never realize our full potential if we do not focus on our mandates of teaching and learning, research and community engagement and instead spend time on activities that do not build our university and Country,” he said.

The Chancellor-Prof. Ezra Suruma (3rd Right) and Vice Chancellor-Prof. Barnbas Nawangwe (Right) pose for a photo with the Best Overall Sciences Student, Mr. Galiwango Kasozi Steven (4th Right), Convocation Leadership and his parents during the first session of the 69th Graduation Ceremony, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda

“Finally, a word to our beloved graduands. You entered the gates of Makerere University with a purpose. That purpose was to be a contribution to your nation through making yourselves and your families and communities better. You will succeed in life if you put a few ideals ahead of you. These are self-discipline, respect for self and others, love for your Country and love for God. The opportunities out there are immense, but only the disciplined will find them,” the Vice Chancellor added.

During this year’s first session, Makerere University Convocation recognized Mr. Galiwango Kasozi Steven for the outstanding academic achievement of graduating as the Best Overall Science Student at Makerere University.  Mr. Galiwango graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Techonology (First Class Honors), scoring a CGPA of 4.84.

At the 69th Graduation Ceremony, the President of the Republic of Uganda H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Pledged to sponsor the completion of the Makerere University Perimeter wall.  The Chairperson of the Makerere University Convocation Dr. Tang Odoi thanked the entire community for their generous contributions towards the perimeter wall project.

Article by Mak Public Relations Office

For live updates, please follow #Mak69thGrad on social media

Proscovia Nabatte

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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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