Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 4, No. 1 | Makerere at the Crossroads, page 5

Problems and Pitfalls
Walking the campus and talking with students makes one aware of Makerere’s many pluses—prestigious past, academic excellence, freedom, connections, dedicated teachers, social engagement…and its considerable minuses—bad roads, broken-down buildings, burning garbage and, in the students’ words, missing transcripts and fees, fees, fees.

The transcript problem seems to be the tip of an enormous iceberg, a point of contact with many other serious issues on the struggling university’s agenda. Students complain it can take up to three years after graduation to get their final records, a major obstacle to job hunting. A female student from the law faculty maintained, “It’s corruption! You can get your transcript much sooner—if you pay.”

“Professors are as concerned about transcripts as students are,” says Ruth Mukama. “We meet regularly to discuss this problem, and it’s a big one.” A British software company is working with the university to come up with the right computer program for managing records, she says, but the issue doesn’t end there, since “There won’t be any data unless teachers submit grades.”

“The registrar sets deadlines, but these are dreamworld deadlines,” adds Dr. Maria Gorreti Nassuna-Musoke, from the faculty of veterinary medicine. “We have two lecturers where there should be seven; they once taught two courses and now teach 30 hours a week or more. How can they give all those exams,” she asks, “or provide constant assessment, which, in fact, they never get around to?” Because government declared that lecturers must have Ph.D.s, faculty members go away to study, and “if they like it better there, they don’t come back!” Professors’ salaries are so low, most take on consulting jobs to make ends meet.

Mukama agrees that all departments are “grossly understaffed. The government has put an embargo on teaching salaries, so we can only recruit part-timers. Of course there are gaps. They haven’t raised the amount they give to the university in decades. And the power outages that plague the entire country make a bad situation worse.”

Power outages aside, most of Makerere’s troubles, including many of the campus’s most glaring eyesores, can be traced to too many students and not enough funds. “In countries where the state has traditionally paid most of the cost of higher education, the introduction of or increase in tuition fees—or any other form of cost sharing—is a politically contentious issue,” according to A.B.K. Kasozi, executive director of Uganda’s National Council for Higher Education.³ “While private universities and schools in Uganda have often increased fees without stiff political and student obstruction, public universities are unable to do so.”

Kasozi claims, over the long haul, only institutions that can freely sell their higher education products at market value will be able to maintain high standards. The imbalance between the cost of education and student fees at Makerere is acute, with students paying only about 30 percent of the annual cost of their programs. He predicts that a lack of autonomy in managing those fees combined with declining government budget allocations, deteriorating infrastructure and growing enrollments will inevitably lead to inferior higher education.

Narciso Matos shares this view. “Studies have shown that the university is not charging enough; it could charge much more,” he says. “At the same time, it needs to shrink, which raising fees would do. But university officials have been unwilling or unable to take that step.”

What about the aid dollars currently flowing into Makerere? Grants in the millions have been given to revitalize the university, build capacity, fight AIDS, improve crops, educate women, construct labs and clinics and fill the empty shelves of the library. Matos wonders why there isn’t more to show for all this outside aid, as well as internally generated funds. Even the university’s most apparently successful projects have their vulnerable side. The computer and information technology building currently under construction, for instance, can only be finished with additional outside support. No plans have been made to sustain the women’s scholarships when the Corporation funds run out, he says. And the Infectious Disease Institute is seriously strained by its doctor/patient ratio of around 1/15,000—a dramatic reminder of the overwhelming impact AIDS continues to have in Uganda, the country once thought to have Africa’s top track record in combating the disease.

“I’m not convinced the university has what it takes to deserve continued support,” says Narciso Matos. “For example, in the past when we’ve asked what Makerere’s priorities were, they turned around and asked what the Corporation considered most important. It’s a sign of a weak center.” Another bad sign, he says, is that even when a project is not performing, they won’t end the program. “There’s a culture of not making waves,” he says. “It’s distressing. While some programs are good and we may be willing to support them to completion, it’s difficult to justify overall support.”

Funding a few handpicked programs is what Andrea Johnson recommends. She worries about giving too much money to too few projects, “as we are sometimes urged to do. What seems efficient, in reality turns out to be the opposite. Instead of having greater impact, big sums of money can be overwhelming and the university just doesn’t know how to spend it well.” She recommends manageable projects, limited grants, careful planning and oversight. “The initial project idea should come from grantees, who have to be able to tell us exactly what they’re doing with the funds and whether the project works,” she says. “If it’s the right idea, and the right people, they can.”

Strong leadership is the only viable solution for Makerere, Matos stresses. “It has the necessary ingredients, but without leadership there will just be a further accumulation of problems, including student unrest. Makerere was a pioneer in privatizing education but it didn’t follow through with the process. Students are beginning to ask questions: Are they getting a better service today, given what they pay? Should they expect more? The university will have to address this issue. There is no alternative, no other institution in the foreseeable future to play this role. Makerere can, and must, become a better university.”

³ A. B. K. Kasozi. “The Politics of Fees in Uganda.” International Higher Education, number 43, Spring 2006.

Karen Theroux is an editor/writer in the Corporation's Public Affairs department with many year's experience in educational publishing.