MUK should start outsourcing its services

May 31, 2006

This is in response to the numerous media articles that have been attributed to the ongoings at Makerere University over the past few months.

This is in response to the numerous media articles that have been attributed to the ongoings at Makerere University over the past few months.
It all started with the strikes, then the problem of load shedding at the University, the reduction in student intake, the impeding tuition fees hike, the news that bachelor courses will soon be no more, and no one can guess what will come next!
For sure, Makerere University has now lost its claim to “building for the future”.
Late last year, there was an article in the media outlining some of the strategies the university administration should adopt to make things work well and solve some of the burdens that have engulfed the institution once called the Ivory Tower.
One of the steps the writer suggested was that MUK should critically address itself on the restructuring process, targeting the administrative make-up.
For instance, with the advent of technological advancement, it is not wise for such an institution to have a non-teaching staff of 3,300 personnel, most of whom are redundant and a burden to the institution in terms of resource utilisation.
For once, the only alternative for both the administrators at MUK and the education ministry is to try to start outsourcing the services the institution needs in order to reduce the costs of administration, which eat up three-thirds of the university’s total income per annum.
Hence, doing this will be taking a bold step, but there need to be procedural structures in place to allow some faculties, for instance, to become semi-autonomous and be relocated outside the main campus.
This, in the long run, will alleviate the problems associated with overcrowding in the lecture rooms, thereby creating room for expansion and other innovations.
The administrators at the main building now have to look at the university as a dying horse and prioritise infrastructure development as per some of the recommendations made in Professor Senteza W. Kajubi’s Education White Paper.
This should be done, other than being preoccupied with the issue of money making in order for MUK to compete with other universities both in Uganda and at the international level.
Ends

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