General
Mak Launches Project to Aid Remote Health Facilities
Makerere University on 8th December 2021 officially unveiled an African project to Benefit Health Facilities across the continent. The Project is called sustainable Off-grid solutions for Pharmacies and Hospitals in Africa (SophiA).
The launch was presided over by the Vice Chancellor of Makerere University Professor Barnabas Nawangwe. The SophiA project will benefit both Makerere and the Health system in remote parts of the country by granting access to off-grid carbon-neutral electricity, heating and cooling of food and medicines, storage of vaccines up to -70°C as well as access to safe and clean drinking water.
Makerere is partnering with 13 organizations across Europe and Africa in the project funded by the European Union to ensure extended support to Health Centre Fours (HC IVs) across four African countries. It will be a 4-year multi-disciplinary project with activities in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Malawi, and Uganda.
Makerere University will take the lead in two of the project’s nine work packages. Work Package 1 (WP 1) is aimed at assessing the needs of several health facilities in the above mentioned countries in order to identify and match in each country ONE most significant and suitable health facility. The facility, which must be located in a rural remote region of the country will then be served by a SophiA system on a pilot basis.
Makerere will also take the lead in work package 7 (WP 7), which will investigate the environmental, economic, and social aspects to demonstrate the benefits of SophiA solutions.
During the launch, Vice Chancellor congratulated the team upon winning the grant adding that it is projects of this nature that will help Makerere implement its new strategic plan.
“First of all, I want to congratulate the team of Dr. Kiggundu, Dr. Bimbona, and Dr. Muhangi upon winning this grant. Makerere has a strategic plan which seeks to make the University even more research-intensive and we are only going to succeed in that if we have got the requisite human resource that not only applies for and wins grants but also does the research and disseminates the findings”. Prof Nawangwe stated.
“This is a very good example of the capacity built by Makerere University over the years to improve its capacity in doing research and also wining grants. At the moment more than 50% of all the money for research that is coming into Makerere is either by individual researchers or groups of researchers or consortia like the one we are seeing here. I therefore want to believe that Makerere has really has reached the capacity of doing research of the highest standard with big grants won competitively at an international level and I want to congratulate you once again” the Vice Chancellor added.
In the same spirit, Professor Nawangwe acknowledged the European Union for considering Makerere‘s application for the grant and supporting the University in the implementation of the project. He also applauded the researchers and their partners for joining efforts to see that this project is a success.
“I thank the European Union for the grant, as well as the other partners of the project and all researchers for their efforts. It’s now my honor to launch the SophiA project.” Professor Nawangwe said.
Dr. Nicholas Kiggundu the project team leader from the Department of Agricultural and Bio systems Engineering, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) made it clear that the project will focus on four major areas including availing electricity to health facilities, preservation of medicine, water purification and improving hospital room temperatures.
“You may have heard in the past that Uganda might not get certain vaccines for COVID-19 because most of our facilities don’t store such vaccines, so this project will restore that possibility. We have a challenge of purified water whereby when you go to the hospital and are given some medicine to swallow but the water is not safe. And so we shall be able to purify water in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way without mixing the chemicals such as chlorine. We shall also make sure that the rooms in the hospital are cool”. Dr. Kiggundu said.
Dr. Denis Muhangi from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) noted that this project will be multidisciplinary so as to find comprehensive solutions for health challenges in Uganda.
“If this project provides refrigeration to the health centres in remote parts of the country, solar energy, as well as all these water treatment and safe storage facilities, we will for sure have solved the bulk of challenges facing health centres in this country.” Dr. Muhangi said.
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.
General
CEDAT’s Department of Architecture to Undergo Major Studio Refurbishment with Industry Support
-
General2 weeks agoMirror Frank Kalimuzo’s life of service-MUBS Principal
-
General3 days agoFreshers’ Joining Instructions 2025/2026
-
General4 days agoMastercard Foundation Board pays its inaugural visit to Makerere University
-
Agriculture & Environment2 weeks agoNew Mak-CAES Project to Spur Green Growth in East Africa
-
General1 week agoCall For Expression of Interest: MURBS MIS Requirements Gathering