The newly appointed Makerere University Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe visited the college of Education and External Studies (CEES) on 20th October 2017. He was accompanied by Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance & Administration) Professor William Bazeyo and the University Management Team
The Vice Chancellor and his Team then held a consultative meeting with CEES staff members in the School of Education Conference Hall, the consultative meeting will allow Makerere University Management to map out strategies on how to Re-brand and improve the Quality of service, Academic reform, Administrative and Financial Re-structuring and sustainability and finally institutional and Human resources development
The Meeting was chaired by the College Principal, Professor Fred Masagazi-Masaazi who welcomed Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, the new Makerere University Vice Chancellor and congratulated him for reaching the prestigious and Administrative leadership of a Vice Chancellor. He assured the Vice Chancellor that as a College, we are enthusiastic of working with him and we are looking forward for his support to the College of Education and External Studies. The College is more than ready to support him and “unlock” itself since he has also shown signs of “unlocking” himself and the administrative and finance issues for the good of Makerere University, Uganda and the entire human race.
The College Principal also told the Vice Chancellor that he is optimistic that the College of Education and External Studies will benefit from his administration owing to the fact that three out of the eight academic references are to be implemented by CEES. These include: Operationalizing ODEL Centre, Operationalizing Learner Centered Pedagogy, and Rolling out ODEL to all Colleges.
He thanked Professor Barnabas Nawangwe for supporting the Open Distance and e-Learning (ODel) policy, secondly, setting up College Review Committee with the aim of studying the existing system and functionality, as well as its efficiency and effectiveness and also for appointing Dr. David Onen, CEES member of staff on this committee and University Management for allocating CEES more teaching space (Lumumba Teaching Space)
He also informed the Vice chancellor and his team that the Research and Grants Office has been put in place in the College and several members of staff are engaged in several research projects with colleagues from within the College and the University at large and others are engaged in various collaboration arrangements with foreign universities and academic institutions. E-Learning and Leapfrogging education to higher levels are some of the success stories at CEES in terms of Research Projects
The Principal reported to the Vice Chancellor that the college plans to recorganize excellent contribution of academic staff that excels in research, innovation and teaching, also recorganizing local and international prominent figures that have contributed in the area of education. Secondly, to operationalize the Institute for Education Research and this is going to be spear headed by Professor Muggaga M. Anthony. Once operationalized, the Institute will develop and equip researchers with the requisite skills for conducting research in the field of education so as to inform policy and practice at national and international level
The college also plans to onlinise two academic programmes next academic year 2017/18; Master of Instructional Design and Technology External and Bachelor of Youth in Development Work (BYDW) External . College also propose that at least each college in the university should have one academic programme online and propose the following academic programmes: Bachelor of Commerce External, Bachelor of Education External, Bachelor of Agriculture and Rural Innovation External, Bachelor of Science External, Bachelor of Arts with Education external, Bachelor of Industrial Livestock and management External, Bachelor of Business Administration External, Bachelor of Information Systems and Technology external, Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences External , Bachelor of Environmental Health Sciences External, Master of Laws External and a MSc. In Geo Info Science and Technology External
He also pointed out that despite some challenges; the college has made some tremendous progress in attaining its mandate, reported the college achievements so far without leaving out the challenges being the faced by the college of Education and External Studies. Achievement included; the adoption of the 2011/12- 2018/19 CEES Strategic Plan, Continued promotion of academic staff, approval of Open Distance and e-Learning (ODel) policy by the University Senate and University Council and the College is now proceeding with the implementation plan of the policy on Open Distance and E-Learning at Makerere University, Several members of staff are engaged in several research projects and grants office has been put in place, College increased visibility through producing publicity literature (publications) by our staff, The College is also engaged in serous collaboration at nation and international level, Capacity building and community engagement through the Centre for Lifelong Learning, Completion rate of College Graduate students has improved greatly, Results processing and timely submission is also improving
In his remarks, The Vice Chancellor, started by thanking the staff member for accepting his request to meet them at a short notice and for turning up for the meeting. The Vice Chancellor noted that the College Principal had mentioned so many activities and he was happy that there are many good activities happening at the college.
The Vice Chancellor also said that his manifesto talks about unlocking Makerere University Potential, he believes Makerere University is sitting on a huge potential, there is need to put in place strategic policies to unlock this potential.
He said that ranking of Makerere University as one of the top best universities on the African Continent is not by accident but because of the best quality academic staff where more than 60% of the teaching Staff are qualified at a PhD level and that there is no any other university on the African continent with such numbers of academic staff with PhDs
The Vice Chancellor promised full support for Open Distance and e-Learning (ODel) because is the future solution of the anticipated population increase in Uganda, it is anticipated that the population of Uganda is likely to surpass the population of Nigeria in 2020 so Open Distance and e-Learning (ODel) is the solution to this problem.
He advised the college to introduce Teacher Improvement Program, where teachers who are working come to the college over holidays to study then go back to teach when the term begins. This programme will help teachers in Uganda to improve their academic qualifications. Also advised the college to implement high education pedagogy to train all staff in the university. He pledged to support the College plans to execute its full Mandate CEES to train all university staff on pedagogy and andragogy
He further said that we need to rebrand the image of Makerere University, all staff need to participate in this rebranding, we do not need to do big things but we can do small things but perfectly. He emphasised that all staff should perform their duties perfectly. On visibility he emphasised that all college academic staff profiles must be on the college website and said this should be done in one month time. Staffs profiles on Makerere Website make it easy for researchers in other universities; agencies indentify Makerere staff easily at national and international level in case there is need to engage in a collaborative arrangement
He was happy that the College of Education and External studies is coming up with the Open Distance and e-Learning (ODel) plan implementation and research plans which will help the university increase its financial base.
He also said that the university has introduced central marking system which will allows the teaching staff to finish marking on time and therefore student will get their marks on time
He then invited the Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance & Administration) Professor William Bazeyo who said that anything to do with education is at CEES and if the college fails to do it correctly then it is killing the whole nation, if CEES fails to exercise its mandate of training teachers then Uganda is in a very big problem. He said that there a huge research potential in the college, adding that no donor or funder can refuse to fund research in the college of Education and External Studies, he further encourages staff growth. He promised support in training staff at CEES in writing a donor funding proposal.
Professor Buyinza Mukadasi said that it was a pleasure to interact with CEES staff, he emphasised the need to turn Makerere University into a research university than a teaching university. There is need to integrate teaching and research, he encouraged the staff to find time to look at the university research agenda. He said that Makerere University is truly a graduate University adding that the college should give more attention to graduate training, he said that Makerere university press is going to be revitalised and this will help graduate students be able to publish before they graduate
Associate Professor Muyinda Birevu Paul (PhD), the Deputy Principal College of Education and External Studies, thanked the Vice Chancellor and his team saying that since he joined Makerere University in 1998, it is his first time to see a vice Chancellor and entire university Management visit a unit and interact with the staff, he informed staff that there is a small function that was going to be performed in recognition of the College of Education and External Studies as the champion of E-Learning in Makerere University and in Uganda. The Function was performed by handing a new brand laptop from DELP research project to Makerere University Vice Chancellor to enable him monitor Open Distance and e-Learning (ODel) activities. The same gesture will also go the Director Quality Assurance, the University secretary, academic registrar and the University Bursar
He then invited Dr. Alex Okot, the Dean, School of Distance and Lifelong Learning who gave a vote of thanks to the Vice Chancellor and his team for supporting the College of Education and External Programmes, also thanked the Chancellor for his idea of rebranding and marketing plan for Makerere University in order to keep the Image of makerere University high
