General
EfD-Mak Acquires Video Conferencing Facility, Equipment Worth over $20,000
Environment for Development Initiative (EfD-Mak) Centre Uganda has acquired an assortment of IT equipment worth over $20,000 funded by the project funds from Sida.
The acquired equipment includes a video conferencing facility, 65” screen, camera and other accessories including a 30-seater conference table and 20 chairs. The centre procured six laptop computers for the core administrative staff, a four-seater workstation, projector, printer, scanner and photocopier as well as a water dispenser, file cabinets, still photo camera and a recorder.
The equipment was handed over to the centre by the Principal, Makerere University College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS) Prof. Eria Hisali on behalf of the university management on 24th August, 2020.
Prof. Hisali thanked the Centre Director for inviting him to the EfD-Mak Office Premises. The centre was allocated space on the fifth floor of the University Centralized Teaching Facility Two (CTF 2).
“It is true that I have been one of the people following the activities of the centre quite closely and I want to say that, on behalf of the university and college management, we most sincerely appreciate all initiatives like this one.
This are very important for the visibility of the university first and foremost, but also for purposes of capacity building for the university staff through research that is being undertaken through participating in different networks” Prof. Hisali remarked.
The Principal expressed the college and university’s commitment to continue supporting this initiative and to create a good environment that enables the centre to grow an even into a bigger self-sustaining entity.
“These are important contributions to not only the development of our country but to the continent and indeed the world as a whole. My purpose of coming was to not only see the equipment but also thank and encourage you to continue working harder” , The Principal appreciated.
Prof. Hisali however noted that the centre’s limited office space and advised the leadership to look at the possibility of having the video conferencing facility allocated its own home.
“I think the immediate thing is for you to consult the Estates and Works department because ordinarily, this video conferencing facility can be used by quite a number of people and the space here will limit the value we can get from accommodating a bigger number of participants”, the Principal advised.
The Centre Director Prof. Edward Bbaale thanked the EfD Secretariat and Sida for the financial support.
“Having this video conferencing facility is very much welcome and we thank EfD and Sida for the grant that led to the procurement.
We have now a fully furnished video conferencing facility that is going to help us in exchanging ideas locally and interacting with other researchers globally via zoom and other modern communication channels. This is very great to us as a young centre”, Prof. Bbaale expressed.
Prof. Bbaale also said, with such a fully furnished centre, researchers were going to enjoy managing huge data sets that require more processing power and computers with the latest software.
He thanked the Principal for the support rendered to the centre and his personal engagement in a number of EfD activities right from the proposal writing stage to date.
“The main reason we have invited you is to account for the equipment and furniture that the centre has acquired given the roles in your docket. This is Council space and you can allocate any user available.” The director explained.
The EfD-Mak is a new Centre at Makerere University established in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2018, under the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD), a global network of environmental economics research centres sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
EfD-Mak started its full operations in the financial year 2019/2020. The centre is headed by Prof. Edward Bbaale, from the School of Economics, College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS) as the Director, deputized by Prof. Johnny Mugisha, from the School of Agricultural Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).
Report Compiled by: Jane Anyango, Principal Communication Officer, CAES.
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) has in collaboration with Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors.
Participants were academic staff from two colleges namely, College of Engineering, Art and Design (CEDAT) and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).
The three-day training that took place at the Telepresence Centre, Senate Building ended on Friday 20thJune 2025.
In his closing remarks to the participants, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “This is the first cohort we are working together with the Center for Teaching and Learning to put together continuous professional development Program so that we are able to enforce the new teaching and learning policy.”
He said that before lecturers are allocated students for supervision, they must first go through this form of formal teaching and learning training to equip them thoroughly with certification required of supervision of graduate students.
“We are coming up with process to ensure that the certificates earned by participants allow you to supervise graduate students. This is the direction of the university and we must ensure that such trainings are concluded and completed successfully by all participants”, Prof. Kikooma.
“We can only have you certified upon completing all the exercises in the training process. This is when you will be eligible to receive the work load for supervision”, He added.
“This training of Supervisors is going to be continuous so that all academic staff in colleges and schools are equipped. This first cohort is going to be our building block to the future trainings in the colleges.”
With such capacity building trainings, Prof. Kikooma said that the university is on the right path to achieving its targets in the new strategic plan of increasing the number of graduate students while progressively reducing the under graduate students.
He further hinted that, “We are in the process of writing a curriculum on this, which will be presented for approval before it is rolled out.”
He echoed all participants to share the knowledge they have acquired adding, “Share all you have learnt, do not keep it. Be open minded, have proper communication channels and the sky will be the limit for you.”
Dr. Robinah N. Kulabako, The Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CEDAT welcomed the training adding, “This training is very pertinent. I have had the opportunity to supervise Masters and PhD students for over 15 years and I must say that the need to be subjected to this training cannot be over emphasized because there is need to learn, unlearn and relearn many aspects involved in the supervision process.”
She added, “We are moving towards knowledge-based supervision rather than experience-based supervision. This means we must be informed and equipped to be able to advise, guide and mentor to be able to lead a successful supervision journey for both supervisor and supervisee.”
Dr. Andrew Gilbert Were – a lecturer at CEDAT and a participant said, “It is important that all supervisors of graduate students receive this certification from Makerere University through a systematic training process that enables them to attain diverse skills to facilitate learning of graduate students from diverse cultures and with unique set of circumstances.”
“This training is long overdue. In fact, it was an oversight that we could be allowed to supervise students without undergoing supervisors’ training.”
Dr. Dorothy Ssebowa, The Director Centre for Teaching and Learning support- CEES said, “The training this time round has had a mix of early career professionals including Lecturers, Supervisors and Professors share experiences. We have learnt a lot more from experienced supervisors who have shared practices on how they have done supervision over the years.”
“The knowledge and experience-based approaches have made this collaboration very active, interactive and learner centered which has resulted into a collaborative learning from the interdisciplinarity of staff from CEDAT and CAES. The issue now is to continue with professional development across all levels.” She added.
The Makerere University Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors. This activity was supported by the iCARTA – Institutionalization of Advanced Research Training in Africa, a NORHED II Project at Makerere University.
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