Balunywa to step down as MUBS Principal

KAMPALA
Prof. Juma Waswa Balunywa is to step down as Principal of Makerere University Business School, after leading the Nakawa based institution for the last 18 years.

Prof. Balunywa, whose current 3-year-old term runs out in 2018, announced at the closing ceremony of the MUBS 20th Annual Management Conference last Friday in Kampala that he will no longer seek another term as the Business School’s Principal.

"If this conference is held the same time next year, I will not be around, this is the last time I am attending the Annual International Management conference as the Principal of MUBS,” he told participants.

Prof. Balunywa on Monday clarified that although he will see out his current contract that runs out in 2018, he will be leaving the position partly out of frustration with government for overlooking MUBS from elevating it to a fully-fledged university, therefore blocking the institutions internal growth – both in terms of structures and human resources.
“We are stuck,” he said.

“There is nothing anymore for me to do. There’s no growth for me and other people. We can’t offer degree programmes in Mbale and Jinja because Makerere has refused to approve them,” he told Daily Monitor by telephone.

Prof. Balunywa headed MUBS at its inception in 1997 as director, after the institution was formed out of a merger between the former faculty of Commerce at Makerere University and the then National College of Business Studies, Nakawa.

Prof. Balunywa then briefly resigned in 1998 after a clash between him and his Makerere University bosses but was re-appointed to lead the school as Principal through a presidential directive. President Museveni, then Chancellor of Makerere University, for which MUBS is a constituent college, overlooked the wishes of the Makerere officials then and even elevated Prof. Balunywa from position of director to Principal.
Balunywa joined Makerere University in 1983 as a lecturer in the Faculty of Commerce and has been teaching business and management for the last 32 years.

He was credited with introducing the private students’ scheme at Makerere, through the Faculty of Commerce which he headed from 1991.

Prof. Balunywa said yesterday that under him MUBS had grown from a population of 8,000 students in 1997 when he took over to lead the merger to the current 17,000 with campuses in Arua, Mbale, Jinja and Mbarara.

He said of his next move;-
“If MUBS allows me, I will continue teaching and doing research. I will also do more in community work and will also continue to write regularly about social issues”.