Ugandans miss Museveni scholarship at Oxford

Mar 17, 2009

NO Ugandan has benefited from the £10,000 (sh30m) Museveni Scholarship at Oxford University in the UK. The scholarship was established in 1998, following a powerful lecture by President Yoweri Museveni during a conference at the prestigious university.

By Arthur Baguma

NO Ugandan has benefited from the £10,000 (sh30m) Museveni Scholarship at Oxford University in the UK. The scholarship was established in 1998, following a powerful lecture by President Yoweri Museveni during a conference at the prestigious university. Proceeds from the conference went into kick-starting the scholarship that has to date benefited at least five students, none of them Ugandan.

The scholarship, under the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), supports Africans wishing to pursue economic research at the university for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil).

The objective of the fund is to assist the financing of African D.Phil. students to work at Oxford on issues relating to African economies.

The topics covered include a wide range of applied analyses of major problems facing policy makers in Africa and solutions thereto.

According to the university website, http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/postgraduate/caz/econ.shtml, the pioneer beneficiary of the Museveni scholarship was Janvier D. Nkurunziza from Burundi whose topic was: Three Ways on Burundi’s Economy.

The second recipient (2000/01) was Godius W. Kahyarara from Tanzania. Others were Neil Rankim (2002/03) whose research examined manufactured exports from sub-Saharan Africa, and Victor A.B Davies (2003/04) from Sierra Leone whose topic was Civil War, Private Portfolios and Growth in Africa. Priscilla Muthoora (2005/06), another beneficiary, did a research topic on Debt Relief and Distribution: An Application to Madagascar.

Tamale Mirundi, the President’s press secretary, says it is not surprising that Museveni was honoured at the university.

“The President has been to Oxford University to officiate at functions. He is well-travelled, informed and respected,” Mirundi says. Mirundi, however, clarifies that the Government does not fund the scholarship.

“The only scholarship linked to the President is Universal Primary Education and Universal Secondary Education,” Mirundi says.

“Since the President is well-travelled and has worked on many things where he is looked at as a role model, it is possible that certain people could have decided to name the scholarship after him.”

Efforts to get a comment from Oxford University on the current beneficiaries and the criteria for award were futile.

The CSAE administrator, Rose Page, did not respond to the e-mail inquiries.

Scholarships have been established in universities after personalities who have enormously contributed to humanity. Many of the scholarship funds in international universities are named after great thinkers and investors in history.

To qualify for the Museveni Scholarship, you must first be accepted on the D.Phil programme in economics at the University of Oxford.

Information on how to apply for the programme is available on the University of Oxford website.

Museveni scholars are selected in annual competitions. It is hoped that currently available funds will be supplemented by grants from institutions which work to support African capacity building so that the Museveni Scholarship can be increased annually.

The university observes that while the number of theses completed by Africans at CSAE is on the rise, most African students find it difficult to find the funds to enable them carry out the long-term study that a D.Phil. degree requires.

The CSAE has established a record of success in the completion of D.Phils.

Macro-economic policy questions covered in the course have included the role of monetary policy in the context of macroeconomic shocks, problems of commodity stabilisation, fiscal and exchange rate policy in eastern and southern Africa.

Issues which have been the focus of attention include the role of networks and social capital in the growth of the manufacturing sector as well as investment in education and health in selected African countries.

According to the website, a recently completed thesis provides the first empirical evidence for Africa of the role of environmental resources in the welfare of rural households.

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