General
Joyce Mpanga: It was by luck that I made it to Makerere
“Although there are a number of things today that don’t look like the Makerere I was in. The Makerere that I entered was extremely beautiful. We had beautiful lawns and there were very few but very beautiful buildings.”
At first, Joyce Mpanga wanted to become a nurse. But the dream never came to fruition as she was still young to get admitted, she had to stay at Gayaza High School and was automatically admitted to Makerere College in 1953, after passing Cambridge School Certificate that learners took after completing junior high school, equivalent to today’s O’level.
Mpanga graduated first in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts. She spent another year at Makerere doing a post-graduate diploma in Education which she obtained in 1958. She was hired as a part-time teacher in Makerere College and later faculty of education.
A politician, women rights crusader and educationist in the past six decades, Joyce Mpanga is one of Makerere’s illustrious female alumni. As the university celebrates its centenary anniversary, it’s shining a light on alumni of her calibre. She is a woman of many firsts, including being the first African female lecturer in the faculty of education at Makerere University and Gayaza High School’s first African deputy headmistress.
Now in retirement and more than six decades after graduation, Mpanga recounted her times at Makerere in a recent interview. Makerere, she says, was a beautiful place. “I entered Makerere in 1953 and I graduated in 1958. I first graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts but then I did one other year of postgraduate diploma in education,” she says. Makerere College was at the time affiliated to the University of London, hence, the degree she received was from University of London.
In the interview, she gives nuanced tells of her time at the hill: being the only female in her Bachelor of Arts class as well as a number of university and national events that took place during that epoch of her life. Mpanga was admitted eight years after Makerere opened doors to female students. In the interview, she also talks about how she earned a job at Makerere as a lecturer.
Mpanga who had joined Gayaza High School in 1947 from Ndejje High with another girl. At Gayaza for junior one to junior three. After completing Junior three and passing continuation exams which learners sat at the time, she went for interviews at Mengo Nursing School in 1949. Other girls who she had applied with were admitted and started nursing training because they were strong enough to carry patients. Mpanga was at the time 15 years old. “They told me that if I like nursing, I can go back and come back later,” she says. She wondered what to do. The other option was King’s College Budo which had started admitting girls in 1934 yet she never wanted to go to Budo. “My father wanted to take me to King’s College Buddo but I didn’t want to leave Gayaza,” she says.
Entry to Makerere
At the time, she was joining what we now know as secondary level. As her parents were pondering on what do, Gayaza decided to start senior secondary level which had to run for four years which she completed in 1952 after passing Cambridge School Certificate. At first, Miss Cox who was the headmistress of Gayza didn’t know whether the students were good enough for Cambridge School Certificate. The headmistress took them to a girls’ only school in Kenya to compare standards which she found that her students were good. Miss Cox became confident thus deciding to present them to Makerere the exams which they passed.
When results were released, Ms Cox was confident that Mpanga and another girl would be admitted to Makerere. Indeed, they were admitted after submitting their certificates to Makerere.
“I remember when my father visited the school, Miss Cox told him that they were going to try and see if Makerere could take me,” Mpanga says. Makerere accepted to admit her together with another girl from Gayaza and one from Trinity College Nabbingo.
“The headmistress sent a teacher to come to my home and inform us that I had been given a place at Makerere. Everybody was excited. The school was excited. My parents were very excited and so was I,” she says.
At Makerere, entrants first did what is now known as two years of Advanced Level (A level) and then studied a degree or a diploma. Degrees were both for sciences and arts. And the diplomas were for education, agriculture and veterinary. In the second year of A Level, students who were to join the degree, London intermediate exams set by University of London while for the diploma, exams were set by Makerere College.
To sit University of London intermediate exams, a student must have passed English at O-level, Mpanga says. “Being admitted for the intermediate exam meant that I had passed with a good credit in English,” she says.
In the first year of A Level, the three girls Mpanga entered Makerere with–one from Gayaza, another from Trinity College Nabbingo and a third one from Kenya–were told that they weren’t going to present them for the University of London intermediate exam. Instead, they were going to take the Makerere higher Arts and go into diploma courses. “They went into education for two years and came out with a diploma in education and that too was quite high for anybody at that time,” she says.
Mpanga sat University of London intermediate exams which she passed and enrolled for Bachelor of Arts. Makerere was then a college that awarded University of London degrees. For the degree, she studied English, history and sociology.
Life as a student
With three other female students she joined with going for diploma, Mpanga became the only woman in the degree intermediate class. And it was the first time she was studying with males. But during the two years of intermediate for degree entry, everybody was telling her to opt for diploma arguing that she wasn’t going to pass. Male students were telling Mpanga that intermediate was going to be very difficult for her. They were also telling her it had even been difficult for male students.
“The intermediate one was the first time I studied with men and of course the men who were discouraging us. All the time they would say that you are a girl and you can’t make it. They would just be surprised to see that you’ve made it,” she says. In the degree class, Mpanga says, “I was used to studying with boys. They used to tease me and I would tease them back.”
Mpanga contemporaries at Makerere included, Prof. Namboze Josephine, the first female student to graduate with a medical degree from Makerere University. She was also the first female medical doctor in Eastern Africa. “She was very hard working as I remember,” Mpanga says.
Nambooze’s time at Makerere: https://100.mak.ac.ug/a-dance-at-state-house-sharing-a-class-with-male-students-east-africas-first-woman-medical-doctor-tells-her-makerere-story-%ef%bf%bc/
At the time she joined, the University Guest House was the girl’s dormitory. There were only 13 girls in the university. They later moved to Mary Stuart Hall, whose construction started in 1947. When Mpanga left Makerere in 1958, there were about 50 female students. Male and female students were treated equally, Mpanga says, except that boys were allowed to get into their halls by midnight, girls had to be in their dormitory by 10:30PM.
The famous undergraduate red gown was in use during the 1950s. It was mandatory for students to don the gown whenever they went out of their halls at night or wherever they went out of campus. Makerere students were very highly respected, Mpanga says. But they also respected themselves. “We had our own self-respect, I am a Makerere student. I can’t do this. Like I see sometimes students moving from Wandegeya, eating maize on the way, how could a Makerere student eat while walking on the street? That was below us,” she says.
Into University politics
Mpanga was always interested in politics. There was a guild which was made up of representatives from halls of residences. Each hall had to send three or four representatives to the guild. “Since I was interested in politics from the beginning, I used to be one of the people who represented Mary Stuart in the guild,” she says. Students campaigned for leadership positions but she says they did not involve outside political parties as it is today.
But as it is today, students took keen interest in national politics by following activities of political parties such as Democratic Party and Uganda National Congress (UNC), the first political party in Uganda formed in 1952. Political parties used to hold meetings where the old bus park is now, Mpanga says. “There was a tree which they called omuti gwe dembe. Politicians from different political parties used to hold mass meetings there. And I remember we used to run and go and listen to them,” she says.
Unlike today when a semester can’t elapse without students’ demonstrations, there were no strikes at Makerere during Mpanga’s time. The last strike had taken place in 1949. And that’s when Abu Mayanja was expelled from Makerere for leading the strike over food. However, Mpanga says there were tense moments such as the deportation of the kabaka Mutesa II in 1953 that nearly led to a demonstration.
On the day the Kabaka was exiled, she says, students were gated in their dormitories to ensure that they don’t move out. But male students forcefully moved out and went outside near the female students’ hall, calling ‘Abana ba BUganda, come out.’ The girls too moved out. They moved to the arts building lower lecture theatre and started shouting out what they were going to do. “We decided on a number of things. One was that we shall never stand up when they’re singing God, save the Queen,” she remembers.
The Queen of England together with the duke of Edinburgh visited Uganda in 1954. As part of the trip, they were supposed to visit Makerere, open the Arts building and plant two trees in the Arts Building quadrangle. It was the reason why the Arts building was christened the Queen’s Court. The Queen’s Makerere visit never took place. Instead students were selected to go to Entebbe and meet the Queen and her entourage. It’s the students who got the trees, brought them to Makerere and planted them on behalf of the Queen and the Duke.
Loyalty to Buganda kingdom mattered for students like Mpanga, hence snubbing the opportunity to go to Entebbe and meet the Queen. “I was not one of the students who went to meet them. I can say that I was fairly political and politics outside concerned me. My kingdom Buganda had refused the Queen,” she says.
Graduation, return to Makerere
Mpanga graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts and a diploma in Education. “And I remember one, one newspaper put in with ‘a double smile for a double entry’ because I got my diploma for education,” she says. Mpanga completed the degree in 1957. It took a year between students completing the degree course and when they graduated because their results had to be verified and approved by London University. She spent the would be year of waiting studying the postgraduate diploma. Her graduation brought excitement in her family and village.
“My family was very excited. In fact, I had a death in the family. One of my brothers died. If that didn’t happen, I don’t know what I would have done with all my relatives, because the whole village was saying, ‘we are going to hire a car and see how our daughter is being crowned.’ Many did not come,” she says referring to the graduation day.
However, her mother and about ten other relatives attended the graduation. Each graduand would be given two invitation cards but Mpanga says she secured more cards from Tanzanian and Kenyan students whose parents were not coming for graduation.
Mpanga had got a first-class diploma in education. And she was quickly earmarked to start teaching immediately after graduation. “They gave me a part-time lecture. I was actually a teacher in Makerere College School, but I also taught students who were in the faculty of education,” she says. “It was sort of saying, don’t go very far. We want you to get a second degree and be able to be appointed as a lecturer.”
It had been the same policy with other bright students such as Kenya’s former President Mwai Kibaki who was appointed part lecturer after graduation. Mpanga taught for one and half years and then went to do a masters degree in education at University of Indiana Bloomington campus in America. When she returned from America, there was no place in the faculty at that time. But Mpanga wasn’t short of offers because Gayaza wanted her as the first African deputy headmistress.
Mpanga took Gayaza high school offer but then after a short time Makerere advertised a temporary job in the faculty of education and the subject was exactly like she had done. This was 1964. She applied for it. Before sitting interviews, she had to get recommendations from the faculty. First, she went to professor Tom Watson who had taught her, and who had advertised the temporary job. The professor told her that the job had been advertised for a very experienced European woman. He told Mpanga that “you are already in a very good first class school as deputy headmistress.”
She went to another professor called Lucas requesting a recommendation. Professor Lucas had been Mpanga’s personal tutor when she was in faculty education. He gladly accepted to give her a recommendation, saying, “if we haven’t produced anybody who can lecture with us, what have we done?”
Mpanga sat the interviews together with other three applicants. She passed and was given the job. “I think I can say I was the first African woman as the lecturer. They were African men who were lecturers. But I don’t remember any woman who was a lecturer at that time. I started as a lecturer in 1964.”
She adds; “I felt proud. I won’t hide that. I felt proud because how many African lecturers were there?” Prof. Yusuf Lule, Makerere’s first black principal, was excited to have the first African female lecturer and didn’t want to let Mpanga go. When her 18 month contract expired, it was extended.
Mpanga stopped teaching in 1967 and went to Britain to stay with her husband who couldn’t return to Uganda following 1966 crisis in which prime minister Milton Obote abolished Buganda kingdom. Her husband was the kingdom’s attorney general in the 1966 crisis.
Final reflections
“I am very proud of Makerere,” she says, adding, “although there are a number of things today that don’t look like the Makerere I was in. The Makerere that I entered was extremely beautiful. We had beautiful lawns and there were very few but very beautiful buildings.”
As Makerere turns a century old and starts its next century journey, Mpanga says, “Makerere should keep that name as beautiful and as dignified as we used to have it.”
“We used to be very dignified and you always felt proud to come to Makerere. And of course, even those who are there now should be proud that they’ve made it.”
Makerere University, the oldest and most prestigious institution of higher learning in Uganda and one of the foremost universities on the African continent, has officially commenced its Semester Two examinations for the 2025/2026 academic year. The much-anticipated assessment period marks a critical milestone in the academic calendar, bringing together thousands of students from across the university’s numerous colleges, schools, faculties, and institutes as they sit their end of semester papers in a bid to demonstrate mastery of the content covered throughout the semester.
The examinations, which span a carefully structured timetable released by the Academic Registrar, are being conducted across the various examination halls, lecture theaters, and designated assessment venues spread throughout the Makerere Hill campus. Security and integrity measures have been reinforced to ensure that the examinations are conducted in a fair, orderly, and transparent manner, upholding the university’s longstanding commitment to academic excellence and integrity.
This year’s examination season arrives at a particularly significant moment for the institution. Having navigated numerous challenges in recent years including disruptions to the academic calendar, resource constraints, and the ongoing effort to modernize curriculum delivery, Makerere finds itself reaffirming its core identity as a centre of academic rigour and intellectual development. The commencement of these examinations is therefore a statement of institutional resilience and the continued determination of both staff and students to uphold the highest standards of scholarship.
A Season of Academic Reckoning
For the student body, the commencement of Semester Two examinations signals the culmination of months of learning, late night reading sessions, group discussions, coursework submissions, and individual academic effort. Across the hostels, libraries, and common rooms of Makerere, the atmosphere has unmistakably shifted into one of focused determination. Students can be seen poring over lecture notes, textbooks, and past examination papers in every available space, from the steps of the Main Library to the benches of Freedom Square.
The university administration, through the various college deans and heads of department, has urged students to approach the examinations with calmness, thorough preparation, and utmost honesty. Messages reminding students of the dire consequences of academic malpractice have been widely circulated, as Makerere maintains a strict zero tolerance policy toward examination fraud, plagiarism, and any form of misconduct during assessments.
Beyond the pressure of performance, the examination period also carries a deeply communal character on the Makerere campus. Students from different programmes, regions, and backgrounds find themselves united by the shared experience of preparation and assessment. Study groups form spontaneously in corridors and courtyards, senior students mentor their juniors on examination technique, and a spirit of collective striving pervades the institution. It is one of the defining features of life at Makerere, where the pursuit of knowledge is understood as both a personal endeavour and a shared social responsibility.
Preparation and Logistical Readiness
Ahead of the examination period, the university undertook extensive logistical preparations to ensure smooth and uninterrupted conduct of all papers. The Academic Registrar worked in close coordination with college examination officers to finalize seating arrangements, allocate invigilators, distribute examination materials, and confirm examination schedules with both academic staff and students. Special provisions were made for students with disabilities and those with documented medical conditions that may require additional time or special seating accommodations.
The university also invested in refreshing and reinforcing the physical examination venues. Lecture theaters and examination halls have been reorganized to ensure adequate spacing between candidates, proper ventilation, and clear visibility of invigilation personnel at all times. In line with best practices for examination administration, the university ensured that all required stationery, answer booklets, and supplementary materials were available and ready for distribution before the commencement of each paper.
Communication between the university and its students was also given particular attention in the lead up to the examinations. The Academic Registrar disseminated detailed instructions regarding reporting times, permitted materials, dress code requirements, and procedures for handling examination anomalies. Students were also reminded of the appeals process available to them should they have concerns about any aspect of their assessment. These communications were shared through the university’s official online portals, notice boards, college bulletins, and student representative councils to ensure maximum reach across the diverse student population.
The role of academic staff in the success of the examination period cannot be overstated. Lecturers and course instructors spent the final weeks of the semester conducting revision sessions, responding to student queries, and ensuring that all coursework components had been duly submitted and graded before the formal examination window opened. Many went above and beyond the requirements of their schedules to hold additional consultation hours, offering students every possible opportunity to consolidate their understanding and approach the examinations with confidence.
The Student Experience During Examinations
The experience of sitting Semester Two examinations at Makerere University is one that students across all disciplines describe as both challenging and transformative. Whether one is pursuing a degree in Medicine, Engineering, Law, Education, Agriculture, Business, or the Arts and Humanities, the examination period demands a high level of intellectual engagement and self discipline. For final year students in particular, these examinations carry enormous weight, as outstanding results can open doors to prestigious postgraduate opportunities, professional careers, and scholarship programmes both within Uganda and internationally.
First and second year students, many of whom are still adjusting to the demanding academic culture of university life, have also been encouraged to view these examinations not with fear, but as an opportunity to measure their growth and identify areas requiring further attention. The university’s Student Support Services office has throughout the semester offered counseling, academic advising, and peer mentorship programmes designed to equip students with the tools needed to manage examination related stress and perform at their best.
The physical and mental wellbeing of students during this period has also been a priority for the university. The university health center has been operating with extended hours to attend to students who may require medical attention, while the counseling and guidance unit has been available to offer psychological support to those experiencing anxiety or other forms of distress linked to the pressure of examinations. Student leaders have similarly been active in organizing welfare activities such as communal meals, devotional gatherings, and motivational talks to sustain morale across the student community.
International students studying at Makerere under various exchange and bilateral agreements have also been fully integrated into the examination process. The International Office worked to ensure that these students were aware of all relevant regulations, that their results would be properly transmitted to their home institutions, and that any unique logistical needs they may have had were addressed in a timely and sensitive manner. Makerere‘s growing profile as a destination for regional and international students makes this kind of inclusive administration increasingly important.
Upholding the Integrity of the Examination Process
Academic integrity remains one of the most sacred principles at Makerere University. The institution has, over its century long history, produced graduates who go on to serve in the highest echelons of government, civil society, academia, and industry, not only in Uganda but across East Africa and the broader global community. The credibility of a Makerere degree is therefore inseparable from the integrity with which its examinations are conducted. To this end, trained invigilators are deployed at every examination venue, and supervisory visits by senior academic officers are carried out throughout the examination period.
Students found in possession of unauthorized materials, communicating with fellow candidates without permission, or engaging in any other form of misconduct face serious disciplinary consequences, including cancellation of their papers, suspension from the university, or permanent expulsion in the most severe cases. These measures are not intended to intimidate but rather to protect the integrity of each student’s genuine academic effort and safeguard the reputation of the qualifications they earn.
It is worth noting that the vast majority of Makerere students approach their examinations with complete honesty and a genuine desire to succeed on the strength of their own preparation. The university’s integrity framework is designed not to cast suspicion on the student body as a whole, but to create a level playing field in which every student’s results accurately reflect their own knowledge, effort, and intellectual ability. The culture of academic integrity is something that Makerere actively cultivates through orientation programmes, faculty mentorship, and ongoing student engagement on the values that underpin the university’s academic mission.
A Legacy of Excellence in Focus
Makerere University was established in 1922 as a technical school and has grown over the decades into a comprehensive research university offering programmes at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels across virtually every field of human knowledge. Today, with an enrollment of tens of thousands of students drawn from Uganda and across Africa, the university occupies a unique and irreplaceable role in the intellectual, social, and economic development of the region. Each examination season is therefore not merely a bureaucratic academic exercise but a living expression of this legacy of excellence.
The University Council, Senate, and Vice Chancellor have collectively reiterated their commitment to ensuring that the assessment process is not only rigorous and fair but also supportive of student welfare. Plans are already in place for timely marking and moderation of scripts, with results expected to be released within the stipulated periods as outlined in the academic calendar, allowing students to plan ahead for the subsequent semester or, for those completing their programmes, for graduation and the next chapter of their lives.
Alumni of Makerere University, many of whom occupy positions of influence in Uganda and beyond, frequently look back on their examination experiences as formative moments that shaped their professional discipline, their capacity for sustained effort, and their ability to perform under pressure. The lessons learned in the examination hall, they often say, extend far beyond the academic content being tested. They speak to the development of character, persistence, and the kind of intellectual confidence that only comes from having genuinely mastered a body of knowledge. In this sense, the examinations of Semester Two 2026 are not merely an ending but a beginning for each of the thousands of students who sit them.
Looking Ahead: Results, Graduation, and Beyond
Once the examination period concludes, attention will swiftly turn to the processes of marking, moderation, and results release. The university’s academic staff are expected to adhere to strict timelines in the submission of marked scripts and the entry of results into the university’s academic management system. External examiners, drawn from other universities and professional bodies, play an important role in moderating the standards of assessment across programmes, ensuring that Makerere‘s results are benchmarked against regional and international norms.
For students who are completing their final year of study, the conclusion of Semester Two examinations sets in motion the graduation process. Makerere University‘s graduation ceremonies are among the most celebrated events in Uganda’s annual calendar, attended by families, dignitaries, government officials, and members of the public who gather to witness the conferment of degrees upon a new generation of graduates. The graduation ceremony is a moment of immense pride for the university, for the families who have supported their children through years of study, and above all for the graduates themselves who cross the stage having earned their qualifications through genuine effort and dedication.
Students who do not achieve the required grades in one or more papers will have access to the university’s retake and supplementary examination provisions, which are designed to give genuine learners a fair opportunity to demonstrate competence without being permanently disadvantaged by a single poor performance. The university’s academic regulations provide clear and transparent guidelines on eligibility for retakes, the conditions under which supplementary examinations may be granted, and the procedures for lodging appeals. These provisions reflect Makerere’s understanding that the journey of learning is rarely linear and that fairness requires the system to accommodate the full range of student circumstances.
A Message of Encouragement
To every student sitting examinations at Makerere University this season, the message from the university community is one of solidarity and encouragement. The journey through university is not always easy, but it is invariably worthwhile. Every late night spent studying, every difficult concept wrestled into understanding, and every assignment completed under pressure has been preparation for exactly this moment. The examination hall is where months of intellectual labor are given form and voice, and every student carries within them the capacity to rise to the occasion.
The university’s academic and administrative staff, from the Vice Chancellor and the Deans down to the examination room invigilators and the groundskeepers who ensure the campus is clean and welcoming each morning, are all invested in the success of every student. Makerere is not merely a place of learning; it is a community built on mutual commitment to the advancement of knowledge and the development of human potential. Every student who walks into an examination venue this season walks in as a representative of that community and carries with them the hopes of their family, their region, and their country.
As Makerere University proceeds through its Semester Two examination period, the entire institution stands united behind its students. From the academic staff who prepared and marked the papers, to the support staff who maintained the examination venues, to the administration that coordinated the logistics and upheld the rules, everyone is working together toward a single goal: providing every student with the fairest possible opportunity to demonstrate what they know and what they are capable of achieving. Makerere University remains, as it has always been, a place where minds are shaped, potential is realized, and futures are built.
The Writer is a Volunteer in the Public Relations Office, Makerere University and the Mak Sharks PRO | Est. 2014
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