“Makerere has made me who I am today; it has nurtured me from a degree holder to a professor, and I will do all that is possible to support this institution” remarked Assoc. Prof. Umar Kakumba the outgoing Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs (DVCAA) as he handed over office to the Acting DVCAA and Academic Registrar, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi. The handover, held on 2^nd August 2024 in the DVCAA’s Senate Building Office was presided over by the Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Finance and Administration (DVCFA), Prof. Henry Alinaitwe, who represented the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe.

The ceremony was guided by Section F – d of The Uganda Public Service Standing Orders 2021 Edition as pronounced by the Director Internal Audit, Mr. Patrick Akonyet. On hand to witness the ceremony were; Ag. Director Human Resources-Mr. Deus Tayari Mujuni, Director Legal Affairs- Ms. Nanyondo Sumaiyah Sebuta, University Bursar-Mr. Evarist Bainomugisha, Ag. Director Research and Graduate Training-Assoc. Prof. Robert Wamala, Deputy University Librarian Dr. Ongaya Kizito, Principal Public Relations Officer-Ms. Ritah Namisango and members of the DVCAA and PR Offices.

Assoc. Prof. Kakumba’s term as DVCAA commenced on 1^st December 2018 and ended on 30^th November 2023, whereupon he was appointed in Acting Capacity until 31^st May 2024. Thereafter, Prof. Buyinza was appointed in acting capacity for a period of six months effective 11^th July 2024 to 10^th January 2025 or until a substantive DVCAA is appointed whichever comes earlier.

Congratulating Assoc. Prof. Kakumba upon the successful completion of his term, Prof. Alinaitwe thanked God that he was able to deliver throughout his term and enable the university to progress especially through the COVID-19 period. “He has really achieved so many things for this institution.”

Prior to outlining some of the accomplishments during his term, Assoc. Prof. Kakumba said, “I am thankful to the Almighty God, to my supervisor Prof. Nawangwe and to my colleagues in top management, academic leaders, administrative and support staff, that I have worked with closely over the last five and a half years as the First Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs)”.

Some of the accomplishments outlined include:

1. Set-up and led the team that crafted a proposal to the MasterCard Foundation (MCF) leading to award of a grant totalling US$ 2,017,933 for the e-Learning Initiative
2. Set-up and led the team that submitted a proposal to the MCF leading to award of a grant totalling US$ 45 million for Phase II of the MCF Scholars’ Programme 2023-2033
3. Led the Committee that crafted a proposal and won a post-doctoral fellowship development grant from the Carnegie Corporation totalling US$ 1,250,000.
4. Set-up and led team that received seed grant of US$ 49,044 from the University of Cambridge, and now finalising a full US$ 25 million proposal on Climate Change and Sustainability
5. Led the Committee that crafted a proposal to the Carnegie Corporation leading to award of US$ 1,000,000 to secure capacity development of early career academics (SECA).
6. Negotiated and secured high-level international training of four Staff and subsequently won a grant from ARUA-Carnegie, to establish the Mak Data Centre.
7. Chaired Steering Committee that won a grant worth US$ 750,000 (2020-2022) and a successor grant worth US$ 750,000 (2023-2025) from the HP Foundation for building capacity in Impact Evaluation for Evidence-based Decisions (IEED).
8. As the Institutional focal person for the African Universities Research Alliance (ARUA), championed Makerere’s hosting and participation in eleven (11) Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence (CoRES).
9. Negotiated and signed an MoU between Makerere and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) on 24^th December 2020.
10. Negotiated and Signed an MoU with Arizona State University (ASU) on 15^th June 2023 to build capacity for Quality e-Learning infrastructure, staff training.
11. Signed an MoU involving Makerere and five (5) other African Universities with the EU-CIVIS Universities Alliance for collaboration in research and innovations projects.
12. Negotiated and signed an MoU with the University of Pretoria on 14^th November 2021 for collaboration in training, joint research, innovations, technology transfer.
13. Negotiated and signed an MoU with the University of Arizona on 19^th April 2021 for a customised degree paths programme (CDP) and/or the world campus experience (WCE) programme.
14. Signed a Consortium MoU involving Makerere and partner African Universities and autonomous research institutes, on 29^th January 2021, for the establishment of the African Institute in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIIKS).
15. Supported establishment of the MoU (signed on 21^st February 2022) with the University Network for Strengthening Macro-Financial Resilience to Climate and Environmental Change.
16. Conducted six (6) research management training workshops, presided over 100 research symposia and dissemination workshops, revitalised knowledge transfer outputs leading to increased scholarly publications from 900 peer-reviewed Journal Articles in 2020 to 1050 in 2021 and 1432 in 2022.
17. Championed the institutionalisation and capacity development of the Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning (IoDEL) at Makerere.
18. Set up a Taskforce during the CoVID-19 pandemic (in April 2020), to fast-track operationalisation of ODeL policy and framework.
19. Championed the development and rolling-out of the Academic Management Information System (ACMIS); a “home-grown software system solution”.
20. Revitalised the Makerere University Press (MakPress), successfully publish and launch a total of fifteen (15) book titles, while ten (10) titles are due this year, 2024.
21. Provided leadership to establish institutional affiliations with training programmes at the National Defence College-Njeru, (2021); Uganda Military Academy, Kabamba, 2019/2020; Police Senior Command and Staff College-Bwebajja (2022); and IGAD Sheikh Veterinary School Somaliland (2020).
22. Presided over the review of One Hundred Seventy-Six (176) existing programme curricula and thirty-five (35) new academic programmes.
23. Presided over thirty-four (34) sessions of the Senate Academic Policies and Appeals Committee, and twenty-five (25) Senate Board of Research and Graduate Training.
24. Presided over successful completion of annual students’ admissions for Makerere University with enrolment numbers (24,684 in 2019/2000); (19,257 in 2020/2021); (20,827 in 2021/2022); (5659 in 2022/2023); and (21597 in 2023/2024).
25. Refurbished the e-Learning infrastructure with 85% of campus now connected on Wireless hotspots; distributed over 400 Laptop computers, projectors and smart-boards to academic units; scale-up of the e-Learning management system (MUELE).
26. Coordinated and supervised the successful completion of the 69^th, 70^th, 71^st, 72^nd and 73^rd graduation ceremonies of Makerere University. A total of 65,092 students (of whom 51% are female) have graduated in the last five (5) years.

In his acceptance remarks, Prof. Buyinza congratulated the outgoing DVCAA upon successfully completing his term of office, adding that the handover ceremony had underlined the need to document all undertakings during one’s term of office. He equally undertook to continue along the trajectory of academic excellence embarked on by his predecessor. “I commit to do all it takes to maintain and consolidate the achievements made by Makerere University during this previous term.”