General
Israeli Amb. H.E. Lotem Visits Mak, Offers to Deepen Collaboration
On Tuesday 29th March, 2022 the Ambassador of Israel to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Seychelles H.E. Michael Lotem visited Makerere University and paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe. Ambassador Lotem was accompanied by his Deputy H.E. Dvora Dorsman Yarkoni. The call was attended by Members of Management namely; the University Librarian Assoc. Prof. Helen Byamugisha, Director Internal Audit Mr. Walter Yorac Nono, Dean of Students Mrs. Winifred Kabumbuli and the Principal College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) Assoc. Prof. Gorettie Nabanoga.
Prof. Nawangwe welcomed H.E. Lotem on his inaugural visit to Makerere University and expressed the institution’s appreciation to the Government and people of Israel for the longstanding collaboration in the form of the Agrostudies Internship programme. Makerere is the coordinating institution for the programme in East and Southern Africa.
“With Uganda being a country whose economy is still very much agriculture-based, this kind of training is extremely important for us because it directly impacts on the knowledge that our farmers would require to improve their agricultural practices… our population is growing very fast, the country is already densely populated and we are told this population is likely to double in the next 30 years. And so we need to learn how to increase productivity of the limited land” remarked Prof. Nawangwe.
The Vice Chancellor expressed Makerere‘s desire to expand collaboration with Israeli Universities especially in areas such as production of electric vehicles and IT-related fields such as Artificial Intelligence among others. He added that Makerere is a comprehensive university that undertakes research in virtually all disciplines.
Contributing to the discussion, Assoc. Prof. Nabanoga shared that her college has received back over 200 graduates of the Agrostudies and was desirous of setting up a demonstration site at the Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK). The site, she noted, would act as a platform for the returning interns to practice the skills they learnt in Israel, and pass them on to peers who didn’t have the chance to attend the programme. Currently, over 60% of returning students are engaged in farming as a business and various agriculture-related activities.
Acknowledging the warm welcome, H.E. Lotem said the way forward on expanding collaboration would be for Makerere to specify particular areas of interest and where available, previous research publications that can be referred to. He further informed the meeting that the Israeli Embassy in Nairobi is planning to hold a seminar in September or October 2022 that will bring together various actors from East African Countries as well as the U.S.A, China, Turkey, Russia among others. Participants will discuss politics, security, economic development and a host of other topical issues.
The seminar, said the Ambassador, will bring on board Israeli academia to help them better understand the East African region, as there are not too many experts on East Africa in Israel. “We will invite you to participate,” graciously offered H.E. Lotem, adding that “this will be a venue to meet with Israeli counterparts from different institutions.”
The Vice Chancellor thanked the Ambassador for his visit and offer to help deepen collaboration between the University and Israeli institutions. He presented an assortment of branded souvenirs to the Ambassador and Deputy Ambassador and invited the Diplomats to attend the climax of Makerere‘s year-long celebration of 100 years of impactful existence on 8th October 2022.
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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