The challenges of starting Gulu University in 2001

The appointment of the Task Force Management Committee charged with the responsibility to kick start Gulu University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences was in July 2001. The members of the Task Force Management Committee comprised of Dr. Nyeko Pen-Mogi, Chairperson to carry out functions of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mary Okwakol, Vice Chairperson, carrying out the functions of a Deputy Vice Chancellor; Dr. Sandy Stephens Tickodri Togboa, member and University Secretary and Mr. Peter Nun Egwel Odyomo, member and Academic Registrar.

The Ministerial Policy Statement of the Ministry of Education and Sports' of June 2001 was presented to members of the Task Force. In the first meeting of the Task Force, members noted that the Policy Statement on page 26 stated as follows "The process leading to the preparation of the Master Plan for the University of Agriculture and Environment Science (UAES), in Northern Uganda, is underway. Temporary premises for the UAES were identified at Gulu District Farm Institute. The Task Force Management Committee (TFMC) for UAES has been appointed and a curriculum for the study courses at this University is now ready".

In the same Policy Statement, under Higher Education planned tasks for FY 2001/2002, page 70 it was stated "work with TFMC, which has been appointed to kick-start UAES, Gulu to prepare for the 1^st intake of the University in October 2001".  This point was emphasized further on page 143 as follows: "Operationalise the University by October 2001, admit students for the first intake in June 2001, and provide basic facilities such as: three vehicles, furnishing administrative block, five computers with accessories and refurbishing existing structures. The Ministry seeked authority to spend 557,228,000 million on Gulu University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences in FY 2001/2002 under budget line ED26 (B) Annex 4, page 9".

A budget of 557,228,000= only was provided for starting the University with students on campus. The Task Force was not given time to plan for infrastructure development and buy the necessary requirements for starting a University. It was assumed that the DFI buildings were sufficient to start the University. When we visited the DFI, we found that there were not enough buildings for starting the University. We immediately seeked authority from the Ministry of Education and Sport to allow us construct temporary buildings for the University. The permission was granted by the Permanent Secretary and we constructed the present temporary structures at the University.

The Ministerial Policy stated that the University become operational by October and the intake in June 2001. We thought of writing to the Minister that technically it is not possible to start the University by October. But politically we knew such a letter would work against the Task Force. We agreed that we should present ourselves as being ready to start the University by October 2001. We quickly worked out an additional budget of over 900,000,000 Million which we presented to the Ministry. To show that we are prepared to start the University by October 2001, we advertised for positions of teaching and non teaching staff early July 2001. We all knew it was not possible to start the University in October 2001, but we did not want the Task Force to be the one blamed for not being ready.

The Ministry scheduled a meeting with the Task Force late July to discuss the budget of Gulu University. The Ministry was clear that it was not possible to raise the additional 900,000,000= we presented and went further to suggest that the University would not be able to open by October 2001. The Ministry was therefore the one responsible to explain to Parliament why Gulu University could not open by October 2001 as stated in the Ministerial Policy Statement. Our strategy worked in our favour and avoided a situation where the Minister would told Parliament that Task Force was one not ready to start the University by October 2001. 

The University opened its doors to students in October 2002. The first University Council was appointed in April 2004. Many of the Council members used to fly to Gulu to attend Council meetings. They were fearing ambushes by Lords' Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. Personally, I also had a problem. In my terms and conditions of service, I should have a driver. But I thought it would be dangerous to have a driver. This was a time when ambushes by rebels were very common. If I was to have a drive, he or she would have to know the details of my travels. He would inform his friends and family about the time of our travels. The details of our travels could reach the rebels and we would be subjects of ambush. I therefore decided to drive myself. 

It should be pointed out at this stage that, the Task Forces for the establishment of Muni and Soroti universities were given time of more than four years to plan and put up infrastructures before opening the Universities. These new Universities have elaborate infrastructures that cannot be compared to those of Gulu University. It needs to be appreciated that Government was right to start Gulu University under very limited infrastructure, because there was no any public institutions of higher learning in the all of northern Uganda except for National Teacher Colleges and Commercial Colleges. The Task Force members were aware of this problems and the team embarked on starting the University without too much demands for infrastructures. To date, with that limited temporary infrastructures, the University is excelling in its academic programmes. We are proud to note that despite the limited infrastructures, the University is ranked highly in Africa. Nationally, Gulu University has remained closely ranked with Makerere and Mbarara and Kyambogo Universities. By 2017, in its 15 years of operation, the University had trained 39 staff at PhD level with many more at Masters Degree levels. Over 85 members of academic staff are at different levels of completing their Doctorate degrees. Human resource development had been the core of our administration. This is the kind of achievement nobody can take it for granted.

There are now three public Universities in northern Uganda, namely Gulu, Muni and Lira. These Universities opened up opportunities to the young people in northern Uganda to higher education. They also opened up job opportunities, because the majority academic, administrative and support staff in these Universities are from the region. In all these major developments, the President was personally involved. The President directed Gulu University to start a constituent College in Lira which later became a fully pledged University. The President directed Gulu University to start a Constituent College in Karamoja and is being implemented. Soon Karamoja will have a fully pledged University. His Excellency the President has opened up northern Uganda to higher education. It is now up to the people of northern Uganda to thank President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with significant political support.