Has Makerere really lost it's glory?
There has been debate whether our renowned MUK a.k.a MAK it's glory days are over. Renown writers and former scholars such as Prof. Mazrui also drive the last nail into Mak's coffin.
Turning to the "Webometrics" rankings 2007 Makerere only managed to take the 53rd position on the Continent whereby a host of South African Universities are the top 10.
Before going into the details, Webometrics methodology is based on web publication, results from the major search engines such as google, yahoo, visibility of a university web page, and number of citations of papers published. Well we can start by arguing that they are not academic rankings like those released by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) or Shangai Jiao Tong University rankings but the point still remains Mak is behind compared to the major East African Universities when it comes to web publication, research papers published online and citations. In East- Africa new comers Dar es Salam University ranked 21, Nairobi University ranked 23 out of 100.
If we were to consider the academic rankings, well the once known Harvard of Africa during the 60s and 70s had a good ride having produced famous graduates. Came the period of private sponsorship, corruption and we saw drama unfold at the famous hill, with recent fake degrees, forging of academic transcipts has led to the sinking of MAK.
Numbers have risen at MAK, that the student to lecturer ratio is 1:100+ in some faculties, the university has introduced courses which are more or less the same but offered in different faculties in order to create income, the quality of education has slumped due to the surging numbers, underfunding, the university currently lacks well educated and experienced academics.
Lack of research has affected the level of teaching, just like one university in Ghana put it "He who doesn't research has nothing to teach", without research and publication lecturers end up using old material, which is recycled over and over again every academic year. Though Sweden, Norway and other European governments support the university in terms of research grants the research results are supposed to be published in peer review Journals, in so doing the level of research will be elevated and this will increase publishing.
Alot of lecturers have managed to go for further studies and they have attained PhDs but on a sad note, publishing is still low, you find in some faculties they are no lecture guides published by the lecturers instead they refer to books published by their peers in US, UK, Canada or Australia, this dwarfs the mind of the lecturer and also the students. A PhD means research and publishing, MAK being ranked at 53 out of 100 meant that research and publishing is at a low ebb compared to Dar es Salam and Nairobi universities.
Gaging on the famous graduates who have passed through MAK, Dar es Salam and Nairobi can't compete, but in my study i singled out the Faculty of Technology from the 3 major universities of the region.
It is evident something has to be fixed at least a department has to be with an experienced full professor, in developed countries to qualify for a teaching assistant position one has to be a PhD student, getting a first class at bachelors doesn't guarantee you to take your peers for tutorials, what if you passed your exams by cramming?, if the university is to produce quality graduates in technology a Masters should be a perquisite for a teaching assistant's job.
From the available information online When it comes to quality academics in Mechanical Engineering it's evident that Dar es Salam has a strong teaching staff, followed by Nairobi and then Makerere last. I think this can be overturned with the sudden expansion of the Faculty of Technology.
Still on the quality of engineers rolled out by the above 3 universities in the region, it's evident that Makerere has few specialised courses in the field of Mechanical engineering compared to it's competitors in the region, and the research fields of the teaching staff are more diverse and beneficial to the economy at Dar es Salam and Nairobi than at Makerere where almost all the teaching staff have "Sustainable energy" as their research fields. Research at Nairobi is published, both the past and current projects and their fields of specialisation in terms of research are almost the same compared to other departments of mechanical Engineering allover the world.
Lack of materials used in pedagogy also limits the performing of the university, with all the ICT gadgets we have it's a must for the departments to be with projectors and other accessories. Web publication should be emphasized, lecturers should be with personal web pages with functional emails to ease communication between a student and the lecturer, and also to post/publish study materials for the respective courses online.
Thank God James Watson had to resign and swallow his own words after claiming that African DNA is inferior, with all the hardships and quality of education we have, African scholars have managed to beat the white's on their on turf in matters regarding education by excelling in postgraduate degrees overseas.
Presently Internet was cut off at the famous Makerere hill because of 600m Ugshs. areas from the Internet Service Providers, and it's coming to a month the problem hasn't been fixed, in developed countries when Internet is off at a University everything stalls, students can't study well, registration of students can't be done, students data can't be accessed etc. MAK has to embrace the dot com era, has to digitize almost all process at the ivory tower, student have to be registered electronically, marks have to be stored electronically, we are in the age of ICT, mak has to wake up!
Ever since the Chancellor stepped down, the place has been vacant, despite the fact candidates were shortlisted, interviewed and 2 names were sent to the President to name the new Chancellor, but now months have passed the university has no chancellor.
We may refute webometrics rankings, but the problem is still evident that MAK is sinking academically and it has lost it's past glory yet universities like Harvard, University College London have maintained their position at the top, newcomers like Dar es Salam, Nairobi and may be Kigali are gonna pass MAK unless there's an overhaul.
Personally I would suggest all the Engineering Programs to be sent to Kyambogo, the government with the help of donor money develop a new Faculty of Technology at Kyambogo and transfer there all the engineering programs. The Undergraduate courses in Arts also to be transferred to Kyambogo such that congestion is eased at Makerere, and it will be more of a graduate school of Natural sciences, social sciences and Medical undergraduate and graduate courses. Recruit new academics, ensure quality research and publication etc.
Mak has lost the goal why it was formed, wrangles between MUBS an affiliated college bring more harm than good. MAK has to learn to work with MUBS, the same applies to MUBS and it's administration have to understand that they are an affiliated college. Let's take lessons from University College London it has a lot of affiliated colleges which are doing well academically.
I conclude by saying action is needed at Makerere to overturn the events, the new chancellor should look to elevate the once known Harvard of Africa, the Uganda government should increase it's funding to the education sector.