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.”
By Ritah Namisango
“This initiative, funded by the Government of Uganda through Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, represents a significant step forward in our efforts to modernize and digitalize our academic processes. It’s therefore with great pleasure and pride that I launch the Digitalization of Academic Records and Processes project at Makerere University, and I commission the Registry of Students’ Records and the Archive of Students’ Records,” stated the Minister of Education and Sports, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni represented by the State Minister for Higher Education, Hon. John C. Muyingo.
As the world continually evolves from manual and traditional methods of records management to modern and digitalized processes, Makerere University launched the Digitalization of Academic Records and Processes (DARP) project to ease the storage, retrieval and acquisition of academic documents by her stakeholders.
The project has digitalized records and implemented new processes as well as established a digital state-of-the-art storage facility at the Senate Building to securely store university academic documents. The digitization process comes along with a university policy that guides on how to record, manage, retrieve and dispose of records not in use. This project is designed to reduce on the substantial amount of space that paper storage systems occupy as well as safeguard records from disasters like fire.
Officiating at the launch of the DARP project on Friday 19th April, 2024 at Makerere University Freedom Square, Hon. John C. Muyingo, affirmed on behalf of Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni that the launch was a significant milestone in the history of Makerere University.
The Education and Sports Minister further noted that in today’s fast-paced world, universities must manage massive amounts of academic information, and efficient record keeping necessitates that the information is accurate, accessible and secure, benefiting both the institution and its stakeholders. She noted that the DARP system would streamline the processes of managing and accessing academic records, resulting in significant timesaving for students and other stakeholders at the university and beyond.
“Digitalization of academic records and processes is an innovation set to revolutionize the way records are managed by addressing pressing public concerns such as efficiency, security, integrity and accessibility as well as eliminating the unnecessary delays in the processes. The traditional manual approach, while effective in its time has become increasingly challenging to sustain in this digital world, therefore, digitalizing academic records and processes provide crucial responses to the monotonous questions that the outdated manual system never addressed,” stated the Minister’s speech.
Having outlined the challenges and risks that the traditional paper-based record keeping systems present such as the storage space factor, the risk of mixing active and inactive records, the high rate of wear and tear as well as vulnerability to manipulation of records, the Minister commended Makerere University on the enviable track record of efficiently managing and securely storing its academic documents, Senate minutes, curricula, examination results and students files for nearly a century, despite political upheavals and other challenges.
She observed that digitalized systems would make academic records more accessible to the students and eliminate the frustration of delays caused by bureaucratic inefficiencies and the outdated paper system, enabling them to timely take the necessary steps in academic and professional progression.
As the University embarked on its journey of digital transformation, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni equally applauded Makerere for continuously upholding its commitment to academic excellence, research and innovation. She advised the fraternity to stay committed to the principles of innovation and inclusiveness that define the University. As such, she urged them to embrace the digital transformation wholeheartedly so as to harness the power of technology and enable Makerere University to remain a beacon of excellence in the academic world.
“Since its establishment in 1922, Makerere University has been a beacon of knowledge and learning, shaping the minds of generations of students and contributing significantly to the development of our nation, Africa and the world at large. Thank you for these brains. Your hard work, expertise, and dedication were instrumental in building this DARP project to realization. I am confident that you will have a lasting and positive impact on this university and the entire education sector, not only in Uganda, but the entire world,” said Hon. Janet Museveni.
The First Lady expressed her gratitude for the partnership with Mastercard Foundation and the support it renders in advancing education and innovation at Makerere University.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe highlighted that the launch of the DARP project was not only a landmark achievement for Makerere University, but also a confirmation of the importance that the University Council and Management attach to the role that digitalization and e-services play in implementation of the University strategic plan that continually strives for a professionally managed university.
The Vice Chancellor revealed that the official launch of the DARP Project, undertaken in-house by a hardworking team of University staff, was a financial gain on the part of the University and an additional asset in the quest to improve efficiency and effectiveness as far as the University academic records and processes are concerned.
“Our current drive has been the continued digitalization of various business processes and services so as to be more responsive to the dynamic needs of our students, staff and stakeholders. We have been able to achieve this through intentional development of our in-house information systems development capacity, which has saved us a lot of funds in terms of initial purchase as well as annual license renewal costs,” said the Vice Chancellor.
Prof. Nawangwe stated that the DARP project has greatly contributed to the timely and improved service delivery to students and clients. He added that the ultimate goal is to enable students download their own transcripts without need for elaborate physical processes at the university.
“During the 74th graduation ceremony, Makerere University was able to issue academic transcripts to qualifying students before graduation. I am pleased to inform you that we succeeded in issuing of academic transcripts before the graduation date because of the DARP project, which we are launching today. With the digitalization of students’ academic records, the University is now in a better position to provide the required information and data on time,” said the Vice Chancellor.
Prof. Nawangwe elaborated that Makerere, being Uganda’s Premier University has been a major beneficiary of several initiatives aimed at improving ICT infrastructure and connectivity. He added that the University has been able to achieve this largely due to the generous donations of the Government of Uganda and other development partners. He thanked His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President of Uganda whose support led to the creation of the Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF) in the 2019/2020 financial year with initial funding of UGX 30 Billion.
He revealed that the funding has continued to be availed throughout the last five financial years, which is clear demonstration that the Government of Uganda esteems Research and Innovation as catalysts to Uganda’s continued march from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country.
“I am proud to say that Mak-RIF has transformed Makerere’s academic and research landscape tremendously. Over the last five Financial Years, we have worked with other key stakeholders including Government ministries, institutions, agencies, organizations, and the private sector. Together, we have continued to increase the local generation of translatable research and scalable innovations that address key gaps required to drive Uganda’s development agenda, especially the un-funded priorities” stated Prof. Nawangwe.
In the same spirit, the Vice Chancellor applauded the Principal Investigator and Team Leader DARP, Mrs. Patience Rubabinda Mushengyezi and all the Team Members for the hard work that has improved the status of academic records and processes from manual processes to e-services. The DARP project is a collaboration between the Academic Registrar’s Department, College of Education and Externals Studies (CEES), College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) and the Directorate of Information and Communication Technology Support (DICTS). The DARP Project team includes: Prof. Betty Ezati, Dr. Peace Tumuheki, Dr. David Luyombya, Dr. Joyce Bukirwa, Ms. Ruth Iteu Eyoku, Mr. Juma Katongole, Mr. Joshua Muhumuza and Mr. Lubowa Gyaviira.
The Vice Chancellor also thanked the Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF) and the Mastercard Foundation for supporting different phases of the DARP Project.
Mrs. Lorna Magara, the Chairperson of Makerere University Council acknowledged that launching the DARP project at Makerere University marked a significant step forward in digitalizing higher education services. She underscored that the transformational power of digitalization could not be overstated. She stated that by implementing an Academic Records Management System, the University would streamline the tracking and retrieval of academic files and establish a robust platform for digital certification and record verification.
“In an era where credential fraud poses a significant challenge, the DARP Project reinforces transparency, trust, and confidence in our academic processes. It is testament to our commitment to excellence. The DARP Project heralds a new era; one where our certificates and transcripts are shielded against increasingly sophisticated forgeries. By providing digitally verifiable academic documents, we empower employers worldwide to expedite verification procedures,” she articulated.
The Chairperson stated that Makerere University aims to create a dynamic and integrated learning environment with a goal to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in an ever-evolving world. She emphasized the need to prioritize student-centeredness and adaptability which vision perfectly aligns with the DARP Project to ensure that the most deserving students can compete fairly in the job market alongside genuinely qualified candidates.
She advised that a system’s effectiveness hinges on the quality of input it receives, therefore, meticulous attention to detail is essential to ensure that the necessary information is accurately fed into the system to yield the expected outcomes. She recommended that vigilant effort has to be invested in ensuring quality processes in how the information is gathered and fed into the system, and the quality of persons tasked to do the work.
Mrs. Magara praised the DARP Principal Investigator for initiating the project in support of the University’s efforts to; address the critical element of maintaining integrity of academic records, significantly contributing to the University’s commitment to digitizing systems, and upgrading the process of archiving of records for ease in verification, certification, and retrieval.
She also extended appreciation to the Government of Uganda for the provision of funds through Mak-RIF, and to Mastercard Foundation for the provision of equipment and other support that will facilitate safe processing and storage of the academic documents.
The Principal Investigator and Team Leader, DARP project, Mrs. Patience Rubabinda Mushengyezi proclaimed that the launch of the project was the birth of a new era in records management at Makerere University.
To enable the audience to understand and appreciate the situation before the DARP project, Mrs. Mushengyezi shared a documentary that highlighted the transformation from a purely manual process to a digital one. She added that the digitalization of student records from the 1980s changes the narrative of delays and long queues to fast, timely and friendly services to the students.
The Principal investigator disclosed that the DARP project team’s aspiration was to have the digitalization of students’ records rolled out in all the schools and colleges of the University. She observed that because of the hard work of the DARP team, they now have clear and well organized documents and the ‘ugly’ records shall never be seen again since they no longer exist. She expressed gladness that what started as a vision had become reality, culminating in the launch of the DARP project.
“Today, Makerere University is launching a new era of digital transformation in the management of students’ records and service delivery. We are changing the narrative of long queues, lengthy processes and we are now moving to efficient and digital services. We are here also to commission the registry of the students’ records and archive. The registry has been fitted with modern shelves with the capacity of storing over 30,000 students files but as we have seen, there is room for improvement and expansion. The archive has been fitted with modern shelves that have a capacity of storing over 100,000 students’ files and 21 wagons will store 170,000 students’ files,” Mrs. Mushengyezi declared.
Recalling the genesis of the DARP Project, Mrs. Mushengyezi shared that when the Government allocated support to the university’s research and innovations fund in 2019, she approached her colleagues and together, they submitted a project proposal. The project identified several challenges which were affecting records management at Makerere University namely; manual records handling, inadequate storage space, inadequate security for records, inexistent policy on records management, and lack of a system to streamline records management. The DARP project therefore set out to address these gaps with the ultimate goal of operating e-services.
“The objectives of DARP Project were to digitalize academic processes including students’ files and examination results and other documents like senate minutes. We wished to establish a students’ records verification and certification Centre. We also wanted to use ICT to improve efficiency in conducting senate meetings and to archive existing manual documents into properly bound and referenced files. It has been a lot of hard work by the project team, but we have seen God’s hand in this transformational journey. I wish to say that we have achieved 95% of our objectives,” Mrs. Mushengyezi stated.
The Principal Investigator noted that the DARP project had created efficiency in the academic Registrar’s department with ability to generate reports on number of students by categories such as course, graduation cohort, academic disciplines i.e. Medicine, Law, Engineering etc., current enrolment and progression, as well as policies passed by the University Senate per year, and so on.
She thanked the Government of Uganda for funding the entire process by providing laptops, access control systems, CCTV cameras, printers, furniture, archival boxes, the 21 shelves, the wagons, stationery and facilitation of the entire team. She also thanked Mastercard Foundation for the support through the relief fund.
She appreciated the entire Makerere University Council and Management for the support rendered towards the establishment of the DARP project and for prioritizing the Project as a university programme. In a very special way, she acknowledged Prof. William Bazeyo, the former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance and Administration), Prof. Fred Masagazi Masaazi-Chairperson of Mak-RIF Grants Management Committee (GMC), Prof. Umar Kakumba, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Mr. Alfred Masikye Namoah, former Academic Registrar and the Academic Registrar, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi, the University Secretary, Mr. Yusuf Kiranda, Deputy Registrars namely Mr. Charles Ssentongo and Mr. Tom Otim, for providing tireless support.
In addition, she recognized the supervisors in the Directorate of Research and Graduate namely Prof. Edward Bbaale and Ms. Prossie Nakayiki.
The Principal Investigator, Mrs. Mushengyezi also appreciated the members of staff whom she referred to as DARP Foot Soldiers for organizing, sorting and scanning the records.
In recognition of her selfless service and leadership, the DARP project team members through the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe presented Mrs. Patience Mushengyezi with a plaque and bouquet of flowers.
The DARP project launch was graced by the Chancellor Emeritus, Prof. Ezra Suruma, Members of Parliament, Vice Chancellors of other Universities, former Vice Chancellors, former Deputy Vice Chancellors in charge of Finance and Administration, the Makerere University Students’ Guild, and Mrs. Mushengyezi’s family. The Chaplain, St. Francis Chapel, Rev. Dr. Lydia Nsaale Kitayimbwa led the opening prayer while the event was moderated by Dr. Zahara Nampewo, the Deputy Principal of the School of Law and Ms. Ritah Namisango, Principal Public Relations Officer and Chairperson of the Protocol, Publicity and Media Sub-Committee for the launch. The Department of Performing Arts and Film was on hand to lead the anthems and keep the guests entertained.
By Betty Nabisubi
On Friday 12th April 2024, over 100 international students convened at Makerere University to participate in the Mental Health Awareness Campaign organized by the International Students Union in partnership with the Counselling and Guidance Centre, International Office and Office of the Dean of Students.
The campaign, which included both physical and virtual participants, rallied international students to always ask for help. The annual event enables students to participate in engaging discussions, and provides a platform for them to openly share and address personal and academic challenges, both on and off campus.
The aim of holding a mental health awareness campaign for international students in the university is to promote mental well-being and provide support and resources for students facing mental health challenges. Furthermore, it seeks to raise awareness about common mental health issues, reduce stigma surrounding mental illness, and educate students on available mental health services and support networks. Additionally, it aims to empower students to recognize signs of distress, encourage help-seeking behavior, and foster a supportive and inclusive campus community where students feel comfortable discussing mental health concerns.
In line with the Mental Health Awareness Campaign theme; It is ok to ask for help, each Official urged the international students to seek guidance and support from the right offices and entities within the Makerere University system.
The Office of the Dean of Students represented by Mr. Peter Mwanja, Warden of University Hall emphasized the importance of students seeking help rather than isolating themselves in their hostels when faced with problems. He urged students to refrain from complaining about lack of assistance, but instead take action by speaking up when faced with challenges. Mr. Mwanja pledged to stand with the students throughout their academic journey so as to ensure that they have a fruitful stay at Makerere University.
In the same spirit, the Manager of the Makerere University Counselling and Guidance Centre, Mr. Henry Nsubuga called upon international students to utilize their services. He appealed to students to seek for help whenever they feel distressed.
“Please come to the Centre when you need help. The Centre is ready to provide assistance upon any distress signal. I assure you that nobody will judge you for not being okay. We have professional counsellors who are willing to help,” remarked Mr. Nsubuga. The Makerere University Counselling and Guidance Centre is conveniently located at Plot 106, Mary Stuart Road, opposite Mary Stuart Hall.
Dr. Gardner Herbert from the Julius Nyerere Leadership Centre at Makerere University emphasized the importance of emotional intelligence, which encompasses the ability to understand, manage, and express one’s own emotions effectively, as well as to recognize and respond appropriately to the emotions of others. He highlighted the significance of students possessing skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, and relationship management.
Self-awareness, he emphasized, serves as the foundation of emotional intelligence. This involves recognizing and understanding one’s own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and motivations. Dr. Gardner explained that ndividuals with high self-awareness are better equipped to comprehend how their emotions influence their thoughts and behaviors, leading to more informed decision-making and greater self-control.
Mr. Gerald Ochwo on behalf of the Makerere University International Office encouraged the audience to visit the premises on Flat A5, Block A, Lincoln Flats for their mandate is anchored on ensuring that International students’ university experience is enriching. Furthermore, he emphasised the importance of students managing their visas proactively, instead of rushing to renew them either at the last minute or upon expiry. He pledged to organize more events to foster relationships among students.
Focusing on nurturing a supportive environment for students away from home, the International Office invited Ms. Olivia Mwanje, a student of Makerere University pursuing a Master’s degree in Climate Change and Development at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to share a lived experience.
Ms. Mwanje was one of the beneficiaries of the exchange students’ programme to Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Her testimony served to demonstrate to international students that with dedication and sacrifice, it is possible to leave one’s home country, study abroad, and excel both academically and personally. She encouraged students to remain focused on their academic programmes despite the allure of other pursuits.
“I urge you, fellow students, to remain steadfast in your educational aspirations while exploring the opportunities available. Prioritize your academic goals over non-academic pursuits,” said Ms. Mwanje. She stressed that deviating from the primary objective leads to unintended consequences. For instance, she shared stories of students who abandoned their academic pursuits for menial jobs upon arrival abroad. Ms. Mwanje advised students to stay committed to their studies and, upon completion, pursue other non-academic endeavors if they so desire.
The Guild President, H.E. Vincent Lubega Nsamba expressed the Guild Leadership’s strong commitment to ensuring that international students have a comfortable stay at Makerere University. He encouraged international students to seek counselling whenever they feel distressed and emphasized the importance of talking to peers for support.
One of the international student leaders, Mr. Harrison Igwe expressed enthusiasm for organizing activities that promote unity within the international student community at Makerere University. The goal of the activities, he said, is to enhance camaraderie and strengthen support networks among international students.
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