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Mak PhD Forum Inaugurates New Executive

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On April 20, 2022, the Phd Fellows at Makerere University also known as Pf@Mak held a meeting at Senate Building where the outgoing executive members handed over to a new executive.

The purpose of this Fellowship is to cultivate and promote an enriching environment for conducting Doctoral Research that is of both academic and applied nature for Makerere University and the entire globe. Enshrined in the Pf@Mak Constitution, the forum’s mission is:

To bring together PhD fellows to actively provide each other with mutual academic support, producing timely high quality research through networking, peer reviewing, sharing funding opportunities and timely study completion.

The Pf@Mak has 500 registered students from the 10 Mak Colleges and Makerere University Business School (MUBS). The Fellowship Executive is comprised of a President, Vice President, General Secretary, Speaker, Finance Secretary, 11 College Representatives including MUBS, 3 Members of Academic Affairs Committee and 3 Members of Welfare Affairs Committee. The Pf@Mak objectives are to:

  • Establish fora for the members to provide academic peer support at University,
  • College/School and Departmental levels,
  • To cultivate long term relationships that are vital for continued multidisciplinary research and academic work,
  • Represent the opinions of the student body to the appropriate authorities,
  • Assist one another to identify potential funders/research grants,
  • Serve as an avenue/platform through which PhD fellows can network (academically and socially), share ideas, engage in collaborative research/ and access relevant information.

The Fellowship’s Patron and Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza said that the University acknowledges and appreciates this Forum as a springboard for Peer Learning where students take stock of shared challenges and benchmark amongst themselves best practices. He promised to continue engaging University Top Management to support PhD students with a Common Room for PhD Colloquium and provide orientation to new students. He thanked the outgoing executive for the many achievements despite the COVID-19 pandemic. He wished the incoming executive the best of success in their tenure.

Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza (3rd Right) – Director of Research and Graduate Training who doubles as the Patron of Pf@Mak joins the new Executive Members (2022-2023) in a group photo on 20th April 2022 at Senate Building. Second Left is the Incoming Mak PhD Forum President Mr. Gerald Zihembire Ahabwe.

The outgoing Pf@Mak Speaker Mr Nathan Tumuhamye thanked his colleagues for providing extra effort in advancing the Fellowship’s objectives and urged the incoming executive to leverage on the goodwill of University Management to ensure PhD Students learning landscape is enhanced.

The incoming Pf@Mak President Mr. Gerald Zihembire Ahabwe, a PhD Fellow in the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, on behalf of the Executive Committee promised to build on previous successes to work tirelessly towards a vibrant PhD Community at Makerere University in line with the University’s strategic direction of being a research-led institution. He promised to constructively engage Management and other stakeholders within Academia, Government and Industry for a turn-around in the way PhD students are organized and supported in their doctoral journeys for the socio-economic transformation of their communities.

The meeting ended with the outgoing executive members receiving certificates of appreciation from Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza for their efforts in steering the Fellowship .

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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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