KIU don tips on how to end strikes
THE managers of universities and other institutions of higher learning should involve students in decision-making to avoid conflicts leading to strikes, a university head has advised.
By Chris Ahimbisibwe
THE managers of universities and other institutions of higher learning should involve students in decision-making to avoid conflicts leading to strikes, a university head has advised.
“We have intelligent children. Let us not deceive ourselves that we are more brilliant than them. We must recognise and involve them,†the Kampala International University (KIU) vice-chancellor, Prof. Emmanuel Karooro, said
“If you do not involve them, they will involve you.†He was delivering a paper on ‘Building strong university capacities’ during a seminar at the western campus in Bushenyi on Friday.
The seminar that was organised by KIU attracted professors, lecturers, administrators and student leaders from different universities in the western region.
Students, Karooro argued, are customers and consumers of knowledge and should be consulted as reasonable people other than imposing decisions on them.
He couselled administrators to actively involve students in budgeting, university council meetings, formulation of the curriculum and staff meetings.
This comes in the wake of a number of strikes in universities, especially those owned by the Government.
“We must change from the old fashion of saying ‘I am a professor, I can not associate with students,†Karooro said.
Lecturers, students and support staff, he appealed, should use better ways of resolving conflict other than violence.
Karooro, however, noted that conflicts were healthy and help in ironing out diverse points of view.
THE managers of universities and other institutions of higher learning should involve students in decision-making to avoid conflicts leading to strikes, a university head has advised.
“We have intelligent children. Let us not deceive ourselves that we are more brilliant than them. We must recognise and involve them,†the Kampala International University (KIU) vice-chancellor, Prof. Emmanuel Karooro, said
“If you do not involve them, they will involve you.†He was delivering a paper on ‘Building strong university capacities’ during a seminar at the western campus in Bushenyi on Friday.
The seminar that was organised by KIU attracted professors, lecturers, administrators and student leaders from different universities in the western region.
Students, Karooro argued, are customers and consumers of knowledge and should be consulted as reasonable people other than imposing decisions on them.
He couselled administrators to actively involve students in budgeting, university council meetings, formulation of the curriculum and staff meetings.
This comes in the wake of a number of strikes in universities, especially those owned by the Government.
“We must change from the old fashion of saying ‘I am a professor, I can not associate with students,†Karooro said.
Lecturers, students and support staff, he appealed, should use better ways of resolving conflict other than violence.
Karooro, however, noted that conflicts were healthy and help in ironing out diverse points of view.