Society must demand more from universities

Last week, I attended the 29th graduation ceremony of Uganda Martyrs University (UMU), which also doubled as their 30th anniversary celebrations. I was glad to have been invited.

It was nice returning to the university after 17 years since I left it as a graduate student. Funny how you return after so many years, and still feel the nostalgia of a student. 

It was tough being a graduate student at UMU as we called it. The university demanded real blood and sweat from the students. You knew you had humbly applied and had to work for the grades, and some fell off the train for sure.

It was such a relief to be admitted, because it meant that you had passed the Graduate Admission Test, an annoying examination that gave prospective students a bloody nose and many did not make it through. When I wrote the exam in 2005, I wondered if it was not a mistake. Yet, it was an extremely rewarding experience. 

Mr Norbert Mao, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, who was the chief guest at the event, reminded us that society on the one hand must demand more from universities, and universities on the other hand should make demands of society.

The role of the university, he argued, was to ask the difficult questions of life and find answers for them, although as a student, it felt like the university was demanding too much from us – the society of students.  

Many years have passed and the university landscape as we know it has tremendously changed. I have literally never left the university since I joined it as an undergraduate student many years ago. I have certainly watched the university change in many ways in over 20 years. 

Some of the changes have been good, and others, not so good. The not-so-good relates to what Mr Mao referred to as teaching people to think and making demands of society.

Sadly, universities are increasingly accused of doing little to solve societal problems and producing graduates who are clueless. And perhaps we are really guilty. But society too, has changed, sometimes along with the core values that made universities important institutions. 

It was clear that in spite of the changes that most universities have endured, some things had remained the same at UMU.

Mr Mao noted that life is about ‘change and growth’. He told the students that in life, things change and people grow. But even as things change, some things must remain the same, as long as they ‘mind the gap’ when things change. He delivered a message the students were captivated by and shared parts of his personal story. 

Talking about things that do not change, it was nice to see that many aspects of the UMU graduation ceremony have remained the same nearly two decades later. I had forgotten about the holy Mass that precedes graduation ceremonies, and the feeling that you have somehow done your part, the rest is in the hands of your creator.

The feeling that you showed up, gone through the season of hard work, and now it is done. And of course, the feeling that there would be other challenging things to do, but you are better positioned for them. 

This year’s graduates will have a lot to remember, given the rich sermon delivered by the Bishop of Nebbi Diocese, the Rt Rev Raphael Wokorach, who is also the chairperson of the University Council.

There was a sense of calm and peace in the sermon that encouraged all of us. He hoped that despite the many changes in society that are not encouraging, an ethically grounded graduate should be different in the marketplace. 

The university graduated more than 1,600 students. Seeing these excited students, and the assurance from their guest of honour, that ‘it does not matter where you come from and your education opens doors for you’, makes you want to pray that this is truly the case. 

At the time we graduated, we were told if we performed well, we would get the right opportunities. Our only investment was that we needed to put in the hard work, perform well, and regardless of where we came from, our gender, and who we knew, we would still be finding the right opportunities where merit was a key determinant. 

I wish we could give our children that assurance too. But the number of times applicants ask me if I know someone in an organisation in which they are applying for a job and people asking me to ‘connect them’, makes me worried, that perhaps, the narrative has changed and not in the right direction.

We need to restore confidence in our recruitment systems, for those who are seeking jobs to believe that they only need to be good and willing to work in order to get jobs. Maybe, this is what universities need to demand of society after training our children.
Ms Maractho (PhD) is the director of Africa Policy Centre and senior lecturer at Uganda Christian University.                      

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