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Director Beate Schindler-Kovats Affirms DAAD’s Continued Support to Mak

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The Director of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Regional Office for Africa, Ms. Beate Schindler-Kovats on Thursday 28th November, 2019 paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe and urged Makerere University to intensify her networks with regional universities so as to form a block. This, she added, would enable Makerere University to tap into additional opportunities by DAAD and the European Union (EU) that seek to support institutions with regional impact.

“DAAD always has new programmes and opportunities for scholars tenable in Germany and in-Country but we also have a lot of opportunities for universities to cooperate at institutional level and we would be happy if Makerere University participated in these programmes as well” explained Ms. Schindler-Kovats.

Earlier, Prof. Nawangwe had welcomed the Regional Director and thanked DAAD for the tremendous support extended to faculty training and diversification of academic programmes. He noted that German has been taught at Makerere since 1967 and thanked DAAD for the big role played in training Masters and PhDs after the turbulent political period.

“Many colleagues, some of whom now occupy leadership positions elsewhere studied in Germany. Prof. Manuel Muranga is one of the most prominent ones,” added the Vice Chancellor.

Prof. Nawangwe shared that Makerere is keen to strengthen her regional networks and has in the past acted as a hub for North Carolina State University’s East African Higher Education Summit. Participating Universities on the occasion included; Gulu University (Uganda), Mount Kenya University (Kenya) and Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Uganda).

The Vice Chancellor-Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe (2nd Right) and Ms. Beate Schindler-Kovats (2nd Left) chat as Dr. Muhammad Kiggundu Musoke (Left) and Mr. Steven Heimlich (Right) listen during the visit on 28th November 2019, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.

“According to data from one of the top ranking agencies, Makerere University has collaborations with all major regional and international universities and this can be seen by the equally high number of co-authored publications in the rankings data” he added.

The Vice Chancellor also cited the upcoming Regional Meeting of the World Health Summit, due to be hosted by Makerere University and the Government of Uganda for the first time in Africa on 27th and 28th April 2020, as the result of collaborative efforts. “Makerere is the only African University that is a member of the M8 Alliance and we look forward to hosting our patrons; German Chancellor-Angela Merkel, French President-H.E. Emmanuel Macron, and EU Commission President-H.E. Jean-Claude Juncker at the World Health Summit 2020.”

The DAAD Regional Director noted that whereas German Universities have got Internationalization as a top priority, collaborating with Makerere University would accord them access to an even a wider network of North-South and South-South collaborations. She concurred that collaborations at this new level of worth exploring.

Mr. Steven Heimlich, the in-Country DAAD Office Representative shared that there are currently 60 students studying German as a subject at undergraduate level. He nevertheless noted the need to offer more flexible subject combinations so as to enable even more students study German as a language.

The Vice Chancellor concurred with the need to offer a diversity of options especially in languages to undergraduate students and promised to look into the matter. He also touched on the upcoming Public Lecture on the Brexit and Regional Collaboration by the German Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Dr. Albrecht Conze, noting that this would an interesting topic for debate. The lecture is due to be hosted by Makerere University on 10th December 2019 in the Central Teaching Facility 2 (CTF 2) Auditorium.

Article by 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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