Makerere goes Collegiate: what it means

When first year students report to Makerere University for their first semester, they will find a new system—a university organised according to colleges and not the usual faculties their parents and others who preceded them found.

It is a tough adjusting act even for lecturers and heads of various sections at the 89-year-old institution which itself was initially known as the Makerere University college at its founding in 1922. But what difference does it make, for an institution expected to provide an education and research service whatever the name?

Promoters of the collegiate transformation argue that the system is an attempt to realign the biggest public University in the country to meet the ever growing challenges to tertiary education. Under the college plan, 22 academic units including faculties, schools and institutes have been contracted to form eight colleges and two schools, operating as semi-autonomous units of the main institution.

Strategic plan
This means joining Makerere for the academic year August/September will instead of faculties be attached to colleges. The plan to move to a college system is part of the ten-year strategic plan (2008/18) guided by the question: “How can Makerere University reposition herself to meet emerging development challenges in Uganda?”

According to vice chancellor, Prof Venansius Baryamureeba, the re-organisation of the units will enable the university produce graduates with problem solving skills and reflective ability relevant to new situations.

Baryamureeba says the move to a college system will ease management and provide avenues for academic synergies and functional relations between the semi autonomous colleges. “The Faculties, Schools or Institutes transforming into colleges will be more effective and efficient since they will have some degree of autonomy within their institutional frames and will be able to constitute and regulate issues which are peculiar and unique to them in a more timely manner,” reads part of the strategic plan Makerere submitted to the National Council for Higher Education to seek its approval for creation of constituent colleges.

The colleges include: College of Natural Sciences (CONAS), College of Business and Management Sciences (COBAMS) and College of Computing and Information Sciences (COCIS).

Others are: College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS), College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) and College of Education and External Studies (COEES). The eighth being College of Health Sciences (CHAS) is already operational.

Management sciences
According to the plan, the School of Veterinary Medicine will fall under the College of Health Sciences while Law School is to fall under the College of Business and Management Sciences. However, not everyone has been happy with the new arrangement as it means significant withdrawal of powers that currently fall under the various faculties. A petition to the Inspectorate of Government seeking to block the formation of colleges said the move was rushed and no adequate consultations with stakeholders were done.

Faculty of Economics and Management lecturer Dr Joseph Wasswa Matovu, asked the IGG, Mr Raphael Baku explains that the move raises serious legal and financial implications for the government and the university in case those who will be affected like the deans find their positions untenable. “The hasty implementation of the policy no doubt raises a whole range of other dire implications of administrative nature. How is this process to unseat current deans whose contracts extend beyond July 2011?” he asked. Dr Matovu also claimed that the move had not been blessed by NCHE and was therefore illegal. But in a 10th February reply, Mr Baku advised Dr Matovu to address his concern to NCHE urguing that the matter was already before them awaiting accreditation as the law mandates.

“NCHE has confirmed that they have commenced the approval process. In view of the Inspectorate declines to intervene in order to give NCHE an opportunity to handle the matter as mandated by the law,” Mr Baku said. But Dr Matovu is not alone.

NCHE, head Prof Bbosa Lutalo has concluded his seven-day visitation which started on March 14 and is preparing a report. However, the council chair Dr Charles Wana-Etyem said plans to shift to a college model has been in offing for more than 15 years, with the pilot establishment of the College of Health Sciences in 2007.

“The objectives of combining units are to encourage resource sharing (human, infrastructural) and help in modularisation of academic programmes thereby eliminating duplications,” the college formation blue print shows.

A college is a constituent unit of the university which enjoys administrative, academic and financial semi autonomous status while a school is an academic unit of a college engaged in teaching, learning, research and knowledge transfer partnerships. An institute is a unit of a college which is exclusively research based as opposed to a centre which is a unit of a college, largely focused on service and knowledge transfer partnerships.

Functional unit
For a department, it is a unit of a school that deals with core functions of teaching, learning and research functions of a particular focused discipline, with at least one programme leading to the award of a degree.

Staffing challenges:
The move to colleges is expected to exert more pressure on Makerere which is already understaffed. Out of 1,320 required academic staff, only 1,028 are available. For instance, of the 513 academic staff needed in College of Business and Management Sciencies (COMBAS), there are only 95 while out of 100 staff required for Finance and Accounting, there are only 14. Marketing and Management needs 106 more staff with only eight currently employed.

The proposed College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) has a student body of over 9,560 and is bringing together 47 undergraduate and graduate programmes. It has four cross-cutting courses with some of the largest and the oldest units in the University: Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Social Sciences, the Institute of Psychology and the Makerere University Institute of Social Research.

A second year student at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Art, who insisted on only identifying himself with first name, Herbert welcomed the idea to combine his faculty with that of Technology.

“Most of us are still green about the college system. But when I heard about the plans, I was happy because employers despise our course yet technology students always come here to consult from us. This will add value,” Herbert said. But of the 10 employees this paper talked too, eight were in support of the idea but feared losing their jobs because of the merger.