Makerere needs more freedom if it is to grow

OPINION 

As I explained last week, we must have an everlasting solution to Makerere woes. In my conclusion of my arguments, I still have this to say, as a wrap up.

Makerere's problems cannot be band-aided.  They should be seen in the context of the rot that set into the university system since 1970 when the Makerere University Act was enacted.

The university was nationalised and governed like other government departments.

As universities respond and serve both national and international demands that are irritating to, and often in conflict with, government's general administrative behaviour, the relations of the university and state bureaucracy have not been smooth since 1970.

Since governments have had both the political and financial power, the university has always lost causing a gradual decay of university systems. 

However, since the university produces skilled workers, politicians and the knowledge the state needs, the nation has also suffered as the university has sickened. 

This is the tragedy of the situation. Because Makerere and other public universities receive money directly from the Treasury instead of through a medium body (Grants Committee) as was the case before the 1970 Act, these institutions are treated as other government departments.

However, universities are judged both locally and internationally and they should therefore be detached from the general public service rules. Therefore, the following innovations should be undertaken:

The Ugandan public university management model must be changed to one which permits the university to become a free, responsible and accountable institution.

In short, the University must be redesigned. Therefore, the University should be delinked from the state in the way it is financed and governed.

Therefore, Ugandan Public Universities, like those of Tanzania and Kenya, must be chartered and be governed according to their Charters.

The Tanzania Universities Act of 2005 and the Kenya Universities Act of 2012 set out clear guidelines of relations of Public universities with the state in which both the University and the state know their rights and obligations.

It is clear that in modernising the management of universities, Uganda lags behind Tanzania and Kenya.

The major reason why our universities cannot get the funds they need and therefore have a number of challenges including fires in universities is the system Uganda uses to manage its universities.

Governance problems arise out of under-funding within the context of state control that links these institutions directly to the state treasury and leads some individuals to control key areas of the university without being accountable to university institutions and the public.

Although institutions are rarely governed differently from the way the state is managed, universities have had traditions of exceptionalities.

Their governance has traditionally been protected by charters which have often given them autonomy to independently manage their affairs.

In a bid to improve the functioning of our public universities, a number of constituencies view a change of guard at the top of university administrations as a major solution.

But a mere change of individuals will not resolve the crisis facing public universities though it may give a temporary Band-Aid treatment.

Thorough transformation of how universities operate is needed to resolve the crisis.

Although on the surface top administrators are elected, the roles of top administrators are not only contradictory to one another but there are also a number of rules which tie the university to state administrative behavior which an individual vice chancellor cannot surmount.

The way public universities are governed is conditioned by their accepting government funding not as independent institutions but as government bodies that are tied to government red tape.

Residues of the 1970 Makerere University Act which regard public universities as mere government departments are insensitive to university behaviour which must respond to both international and local needs.

Since Makerere and other public universities receive money directly from the Treasury instead of through a medium body (like a Grants Committee) as was the case before the 1970 Act, these institutions are treated as other government departments.

This is the high price they have to pay in order to get funds.

However, universities are judged both locally and internationally and they should therefore be detached from the general public service rules.

Since Makerere university is the site of knowledge and high-level human resources production needed to drive Uganda into the 4^th phase of the industrial/technical revolution, the University must be transitioned from a mere teaching to an innovative and knowledge producing institution.

As there is a critical shortage of highly qualified personnel to work in the many universities, the country has established and produced knowledge needed for the country's industrial, commercial and innovation system, Makerere should focus on research and postgraduate training and leave the training of undergraduates to the new universities.

Currently, there is a shortage of over 15,000 PhD holders in Uganda's university system and the country's annual PhD productive capacity does not exceed 300 people.

Since a number of studies have indicated gaps between what employers expect and the students' universities produce, the higher education curriculum needs a massive review to produce versatile broad minded students without vocational sing universities.

Universities should require students to study both Arts and Sciences in their first two years of university in order to broaden their minds through exposing them to the physiological and sociological nature of their lives.

At the same time, a very strong technical sub-sector should supplement and work hand in hand with universities to produce highly skilled technicians to drive the economy.

All welfare components of education should be privatized as government companies have been because they are managed better by the private sector.

The major role of professors is to create knowledge through research, to teach and participate in national debates for the disinterested search of the truth- without aiming at economic or political benefits.

The missions of universities focus on these noble aims, not hotel or hostel management.

The writer is the former executive director of the National Council for Higher Education; and a researcher.