The director of Makerere University School of Graduate Studies, Prof. ELI KATUNGUUKA-RWAKISHAYA talked to JOHN MUSINGUZI about graduate education and prospects for research at Makerere.

What is a graduate school and what is graduate education?
A graduate school may also be called school of postgraduate studies and is a unit in the university that is concerned with planning and coordinating graduate or postgraduate studies. These studies constitute what may be called graduate education and include postgraduate diplomas, master’s degrees, doctorates and higher doctorates such as Doctor of Science or Doctor of Letters.

How are graduate studies and activities different from undergraduate ones?
Graduate studies differ from undergraduate studies in many ways. First, they have different admission requirements and programmes. Graduate studies in most cases involve writing a research report which may be a dissertation or a thesis. This means that the graduate students are largely responsible for driving their programmes as they design their research topics and choose the areas in which to carry out their research and, in some cases, they also make a choice of their supervisors. Undergraduate studies normally follow a programme which is already made and they require extensive guidance as they are largely young people right from secondary school.

How were graduate studies managed before setting up the SGS in 1994?
As you correctly said, the School of Graduate Studies was set up in 1994. It had the main aim of monitoring the registration status and progress of graduate students at different levels and in different academic units, identifying sources of and soliciting for funds to support graduate programmes, liaising with other universities and institutions/organizations on graduate activities, providing courses and seminars, handling research and publications in the university and producing an update of ongoing research and publications.
Before 1994, these functions were being carried out in academic units with no central unit to coordinate them and to ensure quality in graduate training and research. The SGS, therefore, has a largely administrative and coordinating role when it comes to graduate training and research.

So, how does SGS manage and coordinate research?
The SGS solicits for funds to support research which is largely geared towards degree attainment, especially doctorate and postdoctoral research. This function is managed through one of the Senate committees, namely, the Board of Research and Publications. We issue calls and members respond by submitting proposals which are vetted through a peer review system we have put in place. Those proposals which are deemed successful are then recommended for funding. We have also put in place a mechanism to monitor the research activities by having regular meetings with the sponsored students. At these meetings, they present their progress reports and the challenges they meet for general discussion.
Doctorate and master’s students are expected to work closely with their supervisors and are expected to submit six monthly reports to the SGS and to their faculties.
The deans of faculties and their higher degrees committees have a central role in the follow-up of research activities in their units. A portion of research funds, six percent, is paid to the units to follow up and make sure the intended research is actually being carried out. It is a quality assurance measure.

How does SGS relate with MISR and other specialised research organizations?
Since Makerere Institute of Social Research, MISR, is part of Makerere and since the graduate school is responsible for coordinating and compiling all research efforts of the university, MISR is expected to submit annual reports of their activities to the SGS. The director of SGS is a member of the MISR Board and is regularly updated on research issues there. However, this linkage needs to be strengthened.
For other research institutions like Kawanda Research Station, the linkage is very weak since they fall under NARO and under a different ministry. However, we regularly work with the scientists in the institutions when it comes to supervision of our students and examination of theses. We have a very strong relationship with them when it comes to the area of graduate training and weaker linkages in research efforts.

How do postgraduates get sponsorships? Does SGS help them in this regard?
At Makerere, postgraduate education is completely private. This means that students seek their own funding to support their studies. However, there are many sources of funding which we make known to the students, such as a number of embassies and charitable organizations.
These organizations normally require that the student is admitted first before they can access funding. Our role here is to write letters for the students stating that they are admissible and many have used these letters to obtain funding. Recently, the government started a scheme to support graduate students through a fund which is now managed by the National Council for Higher Education. This fund is still small and we are working with NCHE to streamline the management of this fund together with the research fund, since they neither have the experience nor the capacity to mange such funds.

How do you get funding for research?
Makerere University has remained attractive for donor funding and bilateral research engagements. The SGS is continuously looking out for research funding opportunities and writing proposals in response to calls for such funding. We have written proposals and received money from a number of development partners including Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Carnegie Corporation of New York, NORAD, Irish Government, European Union, etc. This is done in partnership with other national and international institutions. Recently, our proposal for further SIDA funding to the tune of about $24m over four years has been approved and a proposal for nurturing and retaining the next generation of academics has been submitted to Carnegie for $2m funding. There are high chances that this will be funded. Many of these programmes are for capacity building, focusing mainly on PhD education and postdoctoral training.
The government has come out to support research through funds disbursed to the NCHE, through the Millennium Science Initiative coordinated by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, through various Presidential Research Initiatives and, more recently, through direct support to Makerere Food Science and Technology and Faculty of Technology.
We are grateful to the President for his personal interest in research and for his vision. I would like to believe that technocrats in the ministry of Finance are getting converted to the need to support research without asking for return on this investment.
Regarding research management, many of these funded programmes have identified activities and timelines. There are various committees involved in the management, for example, steering and implementation committees in addition to having programme coordinators at each supported unit. There is regular follow-up and monitoring, auditing and reporting to make sure that programmes are run as agreed with the sponsors.

What is SGS’ role in introducing programmes and course units?
Programmes and courses are developed by faculties/schools/institutes according to the stakeholder needs. These programmes are then submitted to the SGS for presentation to the Board of Graduate Studies, a sub-committee of the Senate. The Senate makes the final decision.

How will recent recommendations on programme restructuring affect the school?
The recommendations of the committee will not affect the Graduate School. They will, however, affect the graduate programmes conducted by the academic units. There has been duplication of courses at master’s levels and the committee has tried to harmonise them and make them more relevant to the job market. Some programmes aimed at overspecialization which made it very difficult for the employers to gauge the skills the graduate. Many employers would like to have a master’s graduate who is fairly versatile and can handle many tasks presented to him or her. There are units which have been grossly affected by this restructuring and they include School of Education, Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences and Makerere University Business School.

What is the current enrolment under SGS and what are the striking trends?
Currently there are about 4,500 graduate students and the bulk of these are master’s students. Humanities faculties still take in the largest portion of students and science faculties take in few. This is associated with laboratory space and equipment required to conduct the training in the science based faculties. In the recent past, we have witnessed an increase in PhD student applications and enrolment. This is particularly so in the units that have donor funding, especially the College of Health Sciences, Technology, Agriculture, Social Sciences and Arts. These units have benefitted from Sida funding over the last 10 years.
We have more PhDs under Carnegie support and postdoctoral programmes supported by both NORAD and Carnegie Corporation of New York. Makerere University also supports many students for master’s and PhD under its Staff Development Programme.
Having said this, funding for graduate students still remains a problem and we call upon government to put in place a mechanism of supporting these studies. The funding that is channeled through the ministries does not get to the students because some officials in the ministries argue that their employees do not need master’s degrees to perform the tasks assigned to them. Training funds should be put in a separate basket and accessed by interested students.

How will the system affect the SGS?
Makerere University started the College of Health Sciences as a pilot so that we can learn how it works, if it works at all. The purpose of setting up colleges was to have a leaner structure, more efficient decentralized system with colleges managing their own affairs to a large extent. If you ask me whether this is true of the College of Health Sciences, I will say no.

The college structure has been blown out of proportion; it is not efficient, it is underbudgeted and to a large extent nothing much has changed apart from creating more schools with more deans, deputy deans, heads of departments, etc. I think the issue of going colleges needs fresh discussions and agreement on the way forward.

The SGS provides coordination and quality assurance roles. Even though some functions may be decentralized, there is need for a body to oversee the operations of graduate education and research. There are many ethical issues in research conduct that can not be left to researchers. So, the SGS will stay to ensure quality in admission of students, conduct of graduate programmes including supervision, examination and research conduct, to make sure that money for research is used for research and publications.

How long have you been in this job and what did you do before?
I took up this job as director of the school in 2004 and may stay until 2012, giving me eight years of service. Before then I worked in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and held administrative positions of dean for eight years, associate dean for four years and head of department for three years. I have, therefore, had a long period of administration in Makerere, being part of the 34 years I have stayed at this campus.

Do you have one final word?
Yes, maybe two words. I wish to encourage graduate students to take their studies seriously and to acquaint themselves with rules and regulations governing graduate training and research. We have many people especially those employed in government departments and in politics who just abandon their studies. Some come back after eight to ten years asking to be allowed to continue and finish. These are the same people who blame the university for not helping them to finish their studies. Many of those affected are master’s students and they must be aware that one must register every year to remain a student and that master’s programmes have a maximum allowable period of four years.
I wish to thank the university administration, the academic staff and graduate students for the work they are doing to promote graduate education and research. Makerere University has taken a strategic position to transform into a research led university. All efforts, therefore, must now be directed towards graduate education and research.
I wish to thank the NRM government for having come out to support research through many initiatives and for creating an environment where bilateral donor support to research has been possible. I thank the various development partners for having come out to support research in Uganda.
A lot needs to be done to improve graduate training and research at Makerere and other public universities, but I am convinced we are on the right track as we build for the future.
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