Don’t reduce Makerere to a degree factory!

Mar 26, 2007

SIR — On Saturday you published a letter by Dr. Deo Olila entitled “Relocate faculties of arts and social sciences to Katanga”. Every organisation, Makerere University inclusive, needs input of its staff and public.

SIR — On Saturday you published a letter by Dr. Deo Olila entitled “Relocate faculties of arts and social sciences to Katanga”. Every organisation, Makerere University inclusive, needs input of its staff and public.

However, I wonder whether a newspaper is the right forum for a senior academic staff to advise management. Are there no means of internal communication within Makerere?

Maybe the problems there are more than what we think! That notwithstanding, I agree with Dr Olila that a hostel is not a priority for a university that is in final stages of privatising halls of residence.

Building office, lecture and laboratory structures would be much better. What makerere needs to do is to allocate its resources in the most cost- effective way to improve the quality of its graduates.

One other thing strikes me. Why does Olila propose increasing enrolment?
Why doesn’t he propose having more space for lecturers to engage in more comfortable research with manageable number of students? Aren’t the reasons for the 10 percent reduction per year still fresh in Makerere’s minds?

The university management needs to watch out. Maybe the decline has been on for so long that some lecturers have forgotten what a university is supposed to be! They run a risk of reducing the university to a “degree factory” as the senior staff cheer on.

If it is money that makes Olila suggest more intake, let him look around.
there is more money in research and that comes up with more enlightened graduates since they are in touch with their study domains. such graduates will have relevant skills and will not roam the streets for years. That is what a university is supposed to do — produce skilled human resource.

Let Makerere first increase quality before quantity. any further increase in quantity should not in any way compromised quality.

Drake Ssekitto
Amsterdam

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