General
Students Offer Insightful Feedback on Courses, Lecturers & Teaching for Semester 2 of 2022/23
On Friday, 24th November 2023, the Quality Assurance Directorate (QAD) hosted a dissemination meeting at which results of the Students Evaluation of Course and Teaching (SECAT) for Semester 2 of the academic year 2022/2023 were shared with Management as well as Academic and Student leaders. According to QAD, SECAT is one of the mechanisms for engaging students to have a say about the course they have enrolled for, the lecturer who teaches the course and how the course has been delivered so as to generate evidence that can be used for progressive improvement towards to attainment of the University’s strategic plan.
Delivering the welcome remarks at the event, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Prof. Umar Kakumba noted that SECAT is a standard requirement for institutions all over the world and expressed appreciation to QAD for undertaking the exercise. He was particularly appreciative that SECAT is an authentic tool that offers confidentiality to students and provides objective areas and metrics. Furthermore, he noted that since the mechanism is not cast in stone, it can be modified to cater for the unique or emerging teaching and learning needs of some academic units.
“The quality of learners is not a problem because from our cut off points, we take the best performers annually. However, how are the students prepared to learn? What is their attitude and what are their expectations?” pondered the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs).
Prof. Kakumba therefore appreciated the appropriateness of SECAT as a tool for receiving feedback from a tech-savvy generation that is not only good at juggling various tasks but also has a short attention span. He noted that it was important to evaluate whether the courses taught, the lecturers who conduct them and the methods of delivery all meet students’ expectations.
Presenting findings from the SECAT, the Director QAD, Dr. Cyprian Misinde noted that the exercise is essential for assessing teaching quality, aligning course expectations with outcomes, optimizing the timing of evaluations, influencing faculty teaching practices, and evaluating the effectiveness of instructional technology. “By providing valuable feedback and insights, student evaluations contribute to the continuous improvement of educational practices and the overall learning experience.”
It is against this background that Dr. Misinde urged all faculty members from all ten constituent colleges of Makerere University and the Jinja Campus to encourage their students to evaluate their courses. “When we send out the tools, encourage your students to complete them.”
Presenting results from the evaluation, Dr. Misinde reported that overall, 60.2% respondents strongly agreed that the course they took had positive impact on their learning, while 54.7% strongly agreed that courses undertaken improved their capacity to think and learn independently. In terms of courses’ impact on professional practice and relevance to career prospects, respondents were 52.7% and 57% respectively in strong agreement, while 55.9% strongly agreed that courses improved their knowledge and understanding.
As Makerere aspires to be a more research-led University, it was encouraging to learn that 45.9% of students strongly agreed that the courses improved their research skills. Additionally, 55.8% of students strongly agreed that the courses they took encouraged them to read widely.
With regard to the lecturers’ conduct the students strongly agreed that 60.8% of lecturers gave clear descriptions of course objectives, 52.6% were punctual, 51.4% strictly followed the timetable and 59.3% encouraged discussions and participation. Furthermore, students strongly agreed that 64.3% of lecturers were knowledgeable and resourceful on the subject matter, 46.6% assessed and gave timely feedback, 56.1% had a cordial and professional relationship with students, and 66.7% strongly agreed that lecturers dressed appropriately and decently.
On the methods of delivery of courses, students strongly agreed that 53.9% had clear outlines as well as up-to-date reading lists and references, 44% were taught with a variety of teaching methods, tutorials, and aids e.g. ICTs, and 47.1% of teaching and learning environments were conducive for academic pursuit. On the contrary over 50% disagreed that a variety of tools was offered during assessments.
Qualitative results from the evaluation also showed that students enjoyed diverse methods of course delivery, particularly the hands-on experiences, with some acknowledging that “We were sent out into the field to go and do research as groups, this improved on our student to student relationship as it encouraged teamwork and also helped us to do more research”. Additionally, students noted that “…We had to do a survey on marriages in Uganda and on top of the knowledge we attain from the syllabus, we also gained socioeconomic knowledge.”
Representing the 89th Guild Academic Affairs Minister Hon. Patience Nambaziira and student body in general, Mr. Matsiko Timothy expressed happiness that QAD invited the student leaders to participate in rollout of SECAT. Furthermore, he was pleased that SECAT demonstrated the University Management’s appreciation of the changing trends and keenness to receive feedback from the student body on their experience and expectations. “This is surely something to help us build for the future as the Makerere University motto says.”
Concluding the day’s remarks, Dr. Misinde recommended that all units should study the evaluation report and set targets for improvement. He further urged that courses should be grounded in students’ real life situations by evaluating and implementing the suggestions they provided. The Director further recommended that lecturers should take particular note of aspects of courses, their own conduct and methods of delivery that the students enjoyed and seek to inculcate more of these best practices going forward.
The Senior Program Director, Higher Education and Research in Africa, International Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prof. Omotade Akin Aina on 23rd May 2025 visited Makerere University during his short trip to Kampala. Prof. Aina was received on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe by Prof. Tony Oyana, Principal of the College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS).
During his visit, Prof. Aina met with the Project Implementation Committee, representatives from the Consolidating Early Career Academics Programme (CECAP) phase I Fellowship Cohort, and current Fellows of phase II. The meeting discussed the progress of CECAP II, which focuses on fostering academic development and research among early-career academics.
CECAP II is being implemented by Makerere University in collaboration with four other Ugandan public universities, including; Busitema University, Gulu University, Kyambogo University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Prof. Mukadasi Buyinza, the Project Principal Investigator was represented at the meeting by the Director of Graduate Training, Prof. Julius Kikooma.
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training at Makerere University has equipped several Senior ranking lecturers with expert knowledge in a Training of Trainers’ workshop on “Philosophy of Methods”.
In his remarks at the opening of a 3-day training workshop at Level4 Conference Hall – Senate Building, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “The teaching of Philosophy of Methods gives all participants the fundamentals to extend knowledge to other learners, hence its importance in upholding the Makerere University values.”
Kikooma urged and challenged the participants to also attend and actively participate in the follow up of learners’ training of students, stating that the PhD students need support as the directorate continues to coordinate the curriculum of PhD by-research that was approved by the senate recently.
“To holistically implement the senate approved PhD curriculum, we are coordinating capacity building trainings of all stake holders in a structured approach with the different units of the University. Many more trainings including Training of Trainers in advanced research methods course are on the way.”
He further urged the participants to be intentional in their teaching profession and in whatever they were doing, adding “Apart from focusing on practices as teachers and researchers, we can engage in wider philosophical debates in our research areas so that we are relevant in the society and in the empowerment of PhD research students.”
The participants for the Philosophy of Methods training were from College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University Business School among others.
During the same training, Dr. Dickson Kanakulya stressed the need to train senior lecturers in the Philosophy of Methods, saying, “The biggest connection is that societal problems require concrete research to find solutions. Our challenge in Africa is that we employ a short barrow approach to find solutions to problems. This cannot work. We need consistent researchers to solve problems. Lasting solutions to societal issues can only be got through training such as Philosophy of Methods, where researchers come up with new models for societal solutions.”
Dr. Kanakulya said that Makerere University remains the biggest research University in Africa and philosophy of Methods helps to come up with good research tools that produce good research outputs. “Research has shown that the higher the number of PhD researchers in any given country, the higher the levels of development of that country e.g. the USA, China etc., adding that research is not limited to only medicinal or agricultural related issues.”
He said philosophy of methods, encourages philosophical creativity in research, “It is meant to bring out philosophical generation of concepts, theories and ideas. It is meant to encourage students to question the existing philosophical assumptions and status quo in a given field of knowledge such that new philosophical concepts are created.”
For successful rollout of government programs like the National Development Plan 4, Dr. Kanakulya said that Philosophy of Methods training needs to be integrated into such systems. “Philosophy of Methods focuses on ethical thinking aspects. For example, for a better rollout of the Parish Development Model, we need implementers to be ethical.” He added.
Prof. Sulait Tumwiine, the associate Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at MUBS said, “This is a discussion where new ideas are shared to guide and gauge applicability in the current knowledge diversity coupled with lots of technological development including Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT.”
He added, “As professors of Universities, we need to understand how we leverage on what comes up so that it does not take our space, but also appreciate how we can support growth of knowledge. The Philosophy of Methods training is the answer.”
Dr. Jim Spire Ssentongo highlighted that Philosophy uses more of the critical mind than Science. He added that philosophy is more of speculation of the mind.
“Sustainability of philosophy Education encourages us to continue training. Philosophy being the oldest discipline retained special status in the academia as a pinnacle of pursuit of knowledge. All disciplines have major elements of philosophy citing examples in the philosophy of Mathematics and Physics.
Dr. Spire added, “If you do not understand philosophy, you cannot deeply investigate anything because philosophy is the reality of understanding everything. Philosophy is the basis of understanding what knowledge is and how it is arrived at.”
Also participating in the workshop was Prof. Joseph Ntaayi from MUBS, in his remarks he said PhD students need the philosophy of methods training to understand how to best to create knowledge. He added that ontological and epistemological questions that lead to good research design methods can only be answered by this training.
Dr. Robert Kakuru, a Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences said that the Philosophy of Methods training is needed by every graduate student as well as supervisors to critically determine the choice of methods to use in academic research. For example, “If one wants to use a questionnaire as an interview approach, one should understand, why that approach and yet without this training, the why cannot be answered.” He added.
The Philosophy of Methods training was organized by Directorate of Graduate Training with funding support from the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).
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