The DVCAA-Dr. Umar Kakumba (3rd R) with NCHE inspectors-Dr. Andogah Geoffrey (2nd R) and Dr. Ayine Robert (R) with L-R: Mr. Godfrey Mayende, Dr. Julius Kikooma and Dr. Josephine Ahikire. Back row L-R are: Dr. Paul Birevu Muyinda, Dr. Isaac Kajja, Dr. Vincent Ssembatya and Dr. Walimbwa Michael during the NCHE inspection on 2nd September 2020, Makerere University, Kampala Uganda.
A team from the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) on Wednesday 2nd September 2020 visited Makerere University to ascertain the institution’s readiness to undertake emergency Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL). The inspection followed guidelines for adoption of emergency ODeL during the COVID-19 lockdown issued by NCHE to Higher Education Institutions (HEI) on 3rd July 2020.
Makerere in response appointed an E-Learning Fast Tracking Taskforce led by Assoc. Prof. Paul Birevu Muyinda, which prepared and submitted a proposal to NCHE on 25th August 2020. Other members of the taskforce are; Prof. Jessica Aguti-Director Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning (IODeL), Prof. Fred Masagazi Masaazi-Principal College of Education and External Studies (CEES), Assoc. Prof. Gilbert Maiga, Assoc. Prof. Engineer Bainomugisha and Dr. Evelyn Kahiigi from the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS), Mr. Samuel Mugabi-Director Directorate for ICT Support (DICTS) as well as Mr. Richard Kajumbula and Mr. Godfrey Mayende from IODeL.
The NCHE Team led by Dr. Andogah Geoffrey, Dean Faculty of Technoscience Muni University also had Dr. Robert Ayine, NCHE’s Senior Higher Education Officer Quality Assurance as the other member.
Welcoming the inspection team, Members of Management, staff in the Main Hall as well as participants on ZOOM, the Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe expressed Makerere University’s eagerness to implement emergency ODeL, given its over 20-year experience with Distance Learning. The first phase of the African Virtual University (AVU) was launched at Makerere University in 1997. AVU was a distance education project funded by the World Bank to deliver university education in the sub-Saharan Africa countries of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe addresses the audience during the NCHE inspection of Makerere University’s readiness to undertake emergency Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL).
“Our strategic plan 2020-2030 puts emphasis on ODeL because we know that for one, there is going to be an increased demand for higher education in the region which cannot be met by the conventional teaching methods and secondly it prioritises learner-centred pedagogy where the student takes lead and the instructor simply facilitates the learning process” remarked the Vice Chancellor.
Prof. Nawangwe shared with the inspection team that Makerere University has the best ICT infrastructure outside South Africa. This was reiterated in the Director DICTS’ presentation wherein he showed that; Makerere has 32km of fibre optic cable network linking every building to the Network Operations Centre (NOC), 2,200Mbps of bandwidth at a subsidized cost from the Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU), an Incident Response System where the student and staff community can log tickets for ICT-related issues among other amenities.
With reference to Library resources available to support ODeL, the Vice Chancellor said “With approximately 12million electronic journal titles available to our users, we have the largest consumption in Africa.” This was expounded upon by the University Librarian, Assoc. Prof. Helen Byamugisha and her team’s presentation to NCHE when the inspectors made a brief stopover at the Main Library.
Assoc. Prof. Helen Byamugisha (2nd L) flanked by Assoc. Prof. Ruth Nalumaga (3rd L), Mr. Timothy Sentamu (5th L) and Ms. Caroline Kobusingye (6th L) present to the NCHE inspectors led by Dr. Andogah Geoffrey (R) during the stopover at the Main Library.
The team consisting of Deputy University Librarian-Assoc. Prof. Ruth Nalumaga, E-Resources National Coordinator-Ms. Caroline Kobusingye and Systems Administrator-Mr. Timothy Sentamu shared that the Library has; 49 subject/discipline-specific databases, over 240,000 e-Book titles and 7,792 digitized materials accessible. Furthermore, that the Library’s Online Public Catalogue print collection has; 258,900 books, 16,402 archives, 11,698 serials and 4,980 e-Books available to users. The Library relies on EzProxy; a remote access tool, to enable off-campus users access electronic resources, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown. These resources and more are accessible to staff, students and members of the public provided that they are registered with the University Library.
To further emphasize Mak’s readiness, Prof. Nawangwe shared that the University is a leading partner of international ODeL consortia such as EPICA. “Most recently, we partnered with UNESCO-ICHEI to inaugurate the International Institute of Online Education so as to train our staff in e-Learning technologies and I am happy to report that several members of staff have benefited.
Additionally, Prof. Jessica Aguti, our Director Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning spent three years (April 2014 to April 2017) as an Education Specialist at the Commonwealth of Learning in Vancouver, Canada and brings vast experience to our efforts to continue implementing ODeL at Makerere.”
The Chair E-Learning Fast Tracking Taskforce-Assoc. Prof. Paul Birevu Muyinda (L) and Director DICTS-Mr. Samuel Mugabi confer during presentations to NCHE.
The Vice Chancellor concluded his remarks by reassuring NCHE that the institution has put in place several measures to ensure that no student is left behind in the implementation of emergency ODeL. He reported that Makerere University had during the lockdown managed to secure zero-rate access to its e-Learning and other platforms from Africell, Airtel and MTN and would continue to negotiate for similar enablers of ODeL from the telecommunication companies.
In his presentation of Mak’s Readiness for the ODeL System, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs (DVCAA), Assoc. Prof. Umar Kakumba guaranteed the inspectors that the university would in addition to existing resources on MUELE utilize tools such as social media and facilities such as the upcountry learning centres to ensure that the emergency ODeL roll-out is comprehensive. In terms of staff readiness, he shared that over 500 staff had been trained by IODeL in developing and setting up course material on the Makerere University E-Learning Environment (MUELE).
The staff training also covered maximizing the benefits of working with ZOOM to conduct synchronous/live classes. As part of the presentations, the inspectors in a live demonstration joined an ongoing IODeL training session for teams at the College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS). Trainees were then asked to take part in an exercise that gauges active participation and understanding of the concepts being taught. The inspectors and audience in the Main Hall were then able to watch in real-time using another tool called MENTEE as feedback from the class came forth and formed a word cloud with the most frequent responses dominating in size. This feedback, said the IODeL team, can then be used by the instructor to analyse the level of participation by learners and gauge which concepts need further explanation.
Deputy University Librarian-Assoc. Prof. Ruth Nalumaga (L) leads the NCHE’s Dr. Ayine Robert (R) and the team through a section of the Old Library. DVCAA-Assoc. Prof. Umar Kakumba (2nd L) presented on Makerere University’s readiness to undertake emergency ODeL and personally took the inspectors around Campus facilities.
The DVCAA in his presentation equally noted that whereas learning materials and facilities required to implement emergency ODeL were in place, work still needs to be done to improve the attitude and motivation of students to access existing electronic resources. One of the July 2020 NCHE guidelines required Mak to undertake a survey to determine students’ willingness to participate in emergency ODeL. Presenting results from that survey, the Director Quality Assurance-Dr. Vincent Ssembatya demonstrated that the majority (64.11%) of the students who took part in the survey were willing to continue under emergency ODeL.
“What surprised us about these results was that at 71.84%, the first year students demonstrated the highest willingness to continue studying under emergency ODeL, compared to their colleagues in final year” remarked Dr. Ssembatya.
An analysis of the reasons for students’ unwillingness to continue under emergency ODeL revealed mobile data as the most dominant. Further investigation of the mobile data reason using NVivo – a qualitative data analysis tool –revealed expensive data bundles as the foremost challenge. Other reasons cited by students for their unwillingness included the practical nature of particular courses and the short period left to the conclusion of their academic programmes.
The Multimedia Studio located in CTF1 will be used by instructors to develop audiovisual learning materials for uploading onto the MUELE.
Outlining the six-week roadmap for completion of the academic year in the event of re-opening under emergency ODeL, the DVCAA said “the immediate strategy is to complete the theoretical part of the syllabus and for the practical sessions, units will group students into cohorts of 15-20 per session so as to fit within the COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for social distancing. Exams will then be conducted in the last two or three weeks of the period.”
In addition to the Main Library, the inspection team was taken on a tour of the new multimedia studio on Level 4 of the Central Teaching Facility 1 (CTF1) where instructors can record teaching material using state-of-the-art aids in a soundproof environment. They thereafter visited CoCIS where the Principal, Prof. Tonny Oyana took them on a guided tour of the e-Learning Centre as well as the Smart Classroom – the first installation in Uganda. Upon completion, the 50-seater Smart Classroom will make use of a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in particular to analyse students’ learning patterns and abilities and come up with new models of instruction unique to each learner.
The Principal-Prof. Tonny Oyana (L) walks the inspection team through the proposed setup of the Smart Classroom at the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS). The facility will use AI and NLP to improve teaching and learning experience.
The team concluded its inspection of facilities with a visit to the DICTS NOC for a guided tour of the core ICT infrastructure that hosts the e-Learning as well as other university services. A debrief session was held at the Guest House, where inspectors expressed satisfaction with Makerere University’s demonstration of readiness to resume teaching and learning under emergency ODeL.
“I thank Makerere University for taking leadership in this exciting new phase of implementing emergency ODeL. You have demonstrated your readiness and I think all other Higher Education Institutions will emulate you” remarked Dr. Andogah the inspection Team Leader.
He added that it was the simple but equally impressive installations like the Touchless Handwashing Kit (TW-20) at the entrance to the Main Building that demonstrated Makerere University’s ability to innovate and cater to the wellbeing of members of its community.
DICTS Planning and Maintenance Manager-Alex Mwebaze (3rd R) and colleagues Francis Kibalama (R) and Tony Oluka (2nd R) show the inspection team around the Network Operations Centre (NOC).
Dr. Ayine on his part applauded Makerere University as the leading institution for taking the initiative to promote Distance Education and ODeL even before the advent of COVID-19. He shared that the average national tertiary gross enrolment stands at less than 10% and one of the roles of Makerere University is to increase access to higher education.
He concluded by asking the leadership to ensure that in addition to maintaining infrastructure, instructors and facilitators are supported to monitor the participation and progression of learners on MUELE. To help achieve this, IODeL has developed a training schedule for systems administrators and ICT staff at college level to ensure that they will be able to support the different user needs.
Please see the links below for the day’s presentations
Today, on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we celebrate the incredible women scientists at Makerere University who are driving innovation, advancing research, and shaping the future of science in Uganda and beyond.
Your dedication, resilience, and groundbreaking contributions continue to inspire generations. As you break barriers and push the frontiers of knowledge, remember that your work is not only transforming communities but also paving the way for more young women to embrace science.
We honor your achievements and reaffirm our commitment to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment where women in science can thrive. Keep leading, innovating, and inspiring!
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!
The swearing-in-ceremony for the 91st Students’ Guild Electoral Commission was held on Friday 31st January 2025. Mr. Joseph Murungi, a commissioner from the College of Health Sciences (CHS) was unanimously chosen as the chairperson of the commision.
Mr. Murungi thanked the good Lord and students for entrusting him with the position and promised to deliver a free and fair electoral process and head a commission that is impartial.
The Dean of Students, Dr. Winifred Kabumbuli urged the new commission to execute its duties in line with the Guild statute and Constitution.
“You must execute your duties in line with the Guild statute and Constitution, anything outside that is invalid. I wish you the best and I am looking forward to working with you,” she said.
Ms. Ruth Iteu, the Head of the Online voting team, urged the commission to avoid being caught on the wrong side of the law as it will lead to severe consequences.
Rev. Fr. Josephat Ddungu, the Chaplain of Makerere University St. Augustine Chapel said they will continue to pray for the commission to have a peaceful and successful.
“The Electoral Commission is a very important body and the success of the electoral process depends on you. Please concentrate on doing what is right before the Lord. As your spiritual leaders, our duty is to pray. We are therefore praying for you to have a peaceful and successful election,” he said.
Administrator who urged the commission to always do the right at the right time.
Mr. Nickson Maberi encouraged the new commission to follow the law and avoid tarnishing the image of the university.
Mr. Joseph Murungi, Commissioner from the College of Health Sciences (CHS) swearing in as Chairperson of the Electoral Commission for the 91st Guild Elections.
“Makerere University elections attract national attention. Please follow the law and be people of integrity to avoid tarnishing the image of the university,” he guided.
Mr. Aston Tayebwa from the College of Natural Sciences was elected as the commission’s General Secretary while Ms Sharon Nyonyozi from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences was elected as the commission’s Vice Chairperson.
Other commissioners include: Mr. Ijoot William from the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), Mr. Ntambi Moses from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB), Mr. Perez William Mwesigwa from the School of Law (SoL), Alyosius Mutagubya from the College of Computing and Information Science (CoCIS) and Mr. Mugisha Hamidu from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).
The Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU) is a community-driven, non-profit organization with a major focus on nurturing collaboration among member institutions (i.e. research and education institutions), and global partners. Founded in 2006, RENU has grown from a small National Research and Education Network (NREN) that focused on just connectivity needs of universities and research organisations, to a fast-growing specialized ICT solutions provider for the entire Research and Education (R&E) community including schools, colleges, other tertiary institutions, hospitals, and their end users. RENU is located at House No. 31, The Edge, Makerere University and on Plot 6B, Mabua Road, Kololo, Kampala.
Highlights from the 2024 Edition featuring Makerere:
Universities Launch Global Coalition to Support Refugee Education at Scale
16 universities from across the globe have come together to improve and increase access to higher education for refugees and their communities, where they reside. Universities based in Africa, Europe, and North America formed the Global University Academy (GUA) following a workshop hosted by the University of Oslo in June 2024.
The GUA is currently looking into the possibility to pilot the initiative in Uganda. Key partners in this work are Makerere University and Gulu University, who are already actively engaged in providing access to higher education for refugees, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Uganda.
Advancing Child Welfare The AfriChild Centre’s Inter-University Programme
The Inter-University Programme, spearheaded by the Centre of Excellence for the Study of the African Child (AfriChild Centre), is a landmark initiative focused on equipping researchers with the essential skills needed to conduct high-quality child-focused research. The success of the Inter-University Programme is built on the strong partnerships the AfriChild Centre has established with universities including Makerere University.
Liberate your Mind from the Present and Dream Big to Provide Meaningful ICT Solutions for Research and Education!
At the 2024 RENU ICT Directors Forum, Dr. Francis F. “Tusu” Tusubira, the Chief Guest, delivered an electrifying address urging ICT leaders to dream beyond the present and shape the future of research and education. Reflecting on his time at Makerere University, he shared his philosophy of granting autonomy to team members and supporting them unconditionally. “Allow your team to make decisions and mistakes, especially in the current environment, which presents opportunities for learning. Protect them when they make mistakes. Once you do this, your team will build your dream.”
Advancing Open Science and Open Access in Africa, with a Focus on Uganda
Open Science and Open Access have emerged as transformative movements in the global academic and research community. Their principles—sharing knowledge freely, fostering collaboration, and driving practical solutions to societal challenges—are especially resonant in Africa, where equitable access to resources and innovative solutions are essential for sustainable development. Institutions like Makerere University are driving Open Science efforts by encouraging researchers to adopt open frameworks.