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Tottori Students Successfully Complete Overseas Practical Education Program in Uganda

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“I applaud Makerere University and Tottori University for signing the MoU that has enabled the exchange of knowledge and ideas between staff and students from both institutions. This has given students an opportunity to study, research and experience new things,” said the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs)-DVCAA, Dr. Umar Kakumba in a speech read by Dr. Gorreti Nabanoga.

Dr. Gorreti Nabanoga, an Associate Professor and Deputy Principal of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) represented Dr. Umar Kakumba at the closing ceremony of the three-week Practical Education Program in Uganda held on Thursday, 21st March 2019 at Makerere University.

The DVCAA urged the Fifteen (15) students from Tottori University who participated in the Practical Education Program in Uganda to share their findings and knowledge with fellow students when they return to Japan.

Dr. Kakumba said that the Program will help students examine different professions and skills in agriculture, veterinary medicine, engineering, health and social sciences fields and how they have influenced social and economic transformation in Uganda. “Tottori students will learn from our people and the Ugandans will also learn from them” he added.

Tottori University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Makerere University for the delivery of the Tottori University overseas Practical Education Program in Uganda with an aim of fostering students’ global competence skills development and facilitating the building of networks with developing and emerging nations.  

Dr. Gorreti Nabanoga (Right) urged the Tottori students to share their findings and knowledge with fellow students when they return to Japan

In line with the vision of Fostering Global Citizenship, the program was designed to expose Japanese students to the outside world.

The Fifteen (15) students spent three weeks understanding the social-economic conditions and cultural context in which development processes are taking place.  They attended special lectures organised by Makerere University, the Embassy of Japan in Uganda and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and participated in guided-field excursions to various establishments across the country.

Through this program, Japanese students learn about the different aspects of life in the host country such as the education system, health system, the culture, forests and nature conservation, transport, agricultural systems, refugees, economy as well as visiting tourist attractions in the host country.

The Students carried out research and presented findings on topics of interest namely:

•    Problems of refugees in Uganda
•    Education in Uganda
•    Causes of poverty in Uganda
•    Agricultural practices in Uganda
•    Ecosystem and nature conservation
•    Traffic system in Uganda
•    Forest degradation among others

A Japanese official who attended the pass out ceremony listens to the proceedings

Presenting findings on forest degradation, one of the students from Japan, Mr. Tomoki Kinugasa reported that Uganda’s forest cover had greatly decreased due to the usage of a lot of wood to make charcoal in addition to illegal logging. He said that to save forests, people should start using electricity to cook and government should enact strict laws to end logging.

The students were also concerned that people in various parts of the Uganda had built houses in wetlands thus affecting the ecosystem of the country.  “Many activities are happening in the wetlands diverting water flows and flooding low-lying areas.”

They also shared that the narrow city roads lead to a lot of traffic jam by motorists, bodaboda riders and cyclists. Additionally, there is no space for pedestrians to move freely on the roads. Bodaboda riders go against the traffic lights and therefore easily cause accidents.

Ms. Martha Muwanguzi, the Head International Relations Office said that the student and staff exchange was fundamental in internationalizing Makerere University. Without the exchanges, internationalization will remain on paper and the benefits will be minimal to both institutions.

She also expressed Makerere University’s gratitude to Tottori University for the fully funded scholarships that had been awarded to students for Masters and PhD programs in Japan. A similar program for Makerere University students and staff to visit Japan was recommended so as to promote the exchange for the mutual benefit of both institutions.

Written by: Esther Joyce Nakibombo, Volunteer-Mak Public Relations Office

Mark Wamai

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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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