Mak embarks on digitisation of its records
Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe. PHOTO/ FILE
What you need to know:
- The university is not only running out of storage space, but also becoming increasingly inefficient in retrieval of some of its records as well as delay in processing documents.
Makerere University is embarking on a process that will see Uganda’s leading university digitise its student records.
The Digitalising Academic Records and Processes (DARP) of all students that have been entrusted to the university’s care since its founding will be done in three phases, with each costing more than Shs250m.
The undertaking will include planning and preparation for system designs. The implementation stage will entail scanning, archiving and data entry as well as evaluation. At that juncture, all records will be installed in the management system.
Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe yesterday said: “This is a very huge assignment, but we had to have several consultations on how to deal with more than 400,000 students records.”
Prof Nawangwe proposed that part of the relief fund extended by MasterCard Foundation to Makerere University in the wake of the main building inferno be used to support the exercise.
“We need to have our records digitised because we are probably the only major international university who are still depending on hard copies,” he said.
Ms Lorna Magara, the chairperson of Makerere University Council, expressed gratitude at the commencement of the exercise, saying “the second goal of the university’s strategic plan is to focus on innovation in teaching and learning.”
Ms Magara also said the move chimes with the new normal in which the university intends “to deliver services with limited physical contact.”
Ms Patience Mushengyezi, the deputy registrar of Makerere Senate, who also doubles as the principal investigator of DARP, said after nearly 100 years of existence, the institution’s archives need to be digitalised. This included academic policies, Senate minutes, examination results, students’ files and curriculars. All of these are manually stored.
“The university is not only running out of storage space, but also becoming increasingly inefficient in retrieval of some of its records as well as delay in processing documents,” she said.
