MUK, focus on staff development
May 31, 2006
SIR — Let us look at Yale, Harvard, Oxford, New York, Sydney, Monash, Dar-es-Salaam, Khartoum, and the countless prestigious universities around the world. none of these giants has stopped admitting students for undergraduate courses since their inception.
SIR — Let us look at Yale, Harvard, Oxford, New York, Sydney, Monash, Dar-es-Salaam, Khartoum, and the countless prestigious universities around the world. none of these giants has stopped admitting students for undergraduate courses since their inception. Makerere University and the government need to do some reforms in the higher education sector and the funding structure for university admission instead of stopping running undergraduate courses. Microeconomic reform within the university will reduce administrative costs while increasing efficiency, quality and productivity!
Makerere must think of productivity and quality before considering the opportunity cost and the expected gains from
postgraduate courses.
Odur O. Onyokuman
Sydney, Australia
SIR — last week Prof Bakibinga was quoted as saying Makerere University was to become a university for graduates only. This is absurd. Is it because Makerere does not have the ability to teach undergraduates or are there too many graduate students seeking admission? Prof Bakibinga is both a former dean of the Faculty of Law and a former director of the Graduate School. Is it because during his reign undergraduate law students rioted and the graduate students didn’t? Does Bakibinga believe Makerere can take in more graduate students? Let him compare the figures. Less than 30% of admitted graduate students finish their programmes in the specified time. This creates a four-year backlog of students. The professor should look at the university staffing too. The top three ranks (Professor, Associate professor and Senior lecturer) are greatly understaffed. How does he expect to cope with a purely graduate university where only these ranks teach and supervise with such an understaffing gap? Makerere currently has a policy of massive staff training. let the professor concentrate on this and leave out his graduate dream. Some programmes like veterinary medicine, public health and agriculture are taught only at Makerere. Where will makerere get first degree graduates from in these disciplines after the ‘fundamental change’?
Makerere should also get better avenues of developing policies.
Much as staff are highly exposed and trained in several world-class universities, they have not been consulted over the policy. Yet they are expected to implement it as the administrators are seated in the main building!
Lastly, Makerere should get appropriate ways of issuing policy statements. The university has no supervisory role over the Makerere Institute of Social Development, so Bakibinga was invited in his personal capacity. But here he was issuing policy statements in his capacity as DVC from an ‘offside’ position! Another time he might do it at a kuhingira ceremony!
Drake Ssekitto
Kampala
Makerere must think of productivity and quality before considering the opportunity cost and the expected gains from
postgraduate courses.
Odur O. Onyokuman
Sydney, Australia
SIR — last week Prof Bakibinga was quoted as saying Makerere University was to become a university for graduates only. This is absurd. Is it because Makerere does not have the ability to teach undergraduates or are there too many graduate students seeking admission? Prof Bakibinga is both a former dean of the Faculty of Law and a former director of the Graduate School. Is it because during his reign undergraduate law students rioted and the graduate students didn’t? Does Bakibinga believe Makerere can take in more graduate students? Let him compare the figures. Less than 30% of admitted graduate students finish their programmes in the specified time. This creates a four-year backlog of students. The professor should look at the university staffing too. The top three ranks (Professor, Associate professor and Senior lecturer) are greatly understaffed. How does he expect to cope with a purely graduate university where only these ranks teach and supervise with such an understaffing gap? Makerere currently has a policy of massive staff training. let the professor concentrate on this and leave out his graduate dream. Some programmes like veterinary medicine, public health and agriculture are taught only at Makerere. Where will makerere get first degree graduates from in these disciplines after the ‘fundamental change’?
Makerere should also get better avenues of developing policies.
Much as staff are highly exposed and trained in several world-class universities, they have not been consulted over the policy. Yet they are expected to implement it as the administrators are seated in the main building!
Lastly, Makerere should get appropriate ways of issuing policy statements. The university has no supervisory role over the Makerere Institute of Social Development, so Bakibinga was invited in his personal capacity. But here he was issuing policy statements in his capacity as DVC from an ‘offside’ position! Another time he might do it at a kuhingira ceremony!
Drake Ssekitto
Kampala