The government Chief Whip, Thomas Tayebwa, has pledged more government support towards research and innovation at Makerere University.
Tayebwa made the pledge on Thursday while presiding over a stakeholders mobilisation event in commemoration of the 100 years (1922- 2022) of the university’s existence.
Delivering his remarks, the Ruhinda County MP highlighted that as government, they are funding research at Makerere to the tune of shillings 30 billion but admitted that is hardly enough.
Tayebwa, who is also member of Makerere Governing Council, said despite government’s budget to Makerere standing at about shs 365 billion, most of it is going to human resource with less attention being given to other aspects including research.
“I think it’s high time we looked at other aspects; teaching environment, learning environment, and research and innovation. We need to look at that and the Speaker of Parliament has told me that he will support strongly that element and I can also assure you on behalf of government that we are going to look at that,” Tayebwa said.
Tayebwa said the issue of increasing funding in research at Makerere must be addressed by government rather than depending on donors. He however, noted that incase of increased funding, there has to be value for the money at the university.
He warned, “So, Shs30 billion for research, we shall be improving on that by adding you more money but we also expect the more we give you, the more impact you must create as a university,”
At the event, the Chief Whip also called for improvement in infrastructure at Makerere in terms of teaching and learning environment.
“We’ve to improve it. We’ve given you Shs21 billion to renovate the main building. I believe the process is going on well and other infrastructures of the university but we need you to be more innovative,” Tayebwa noted.
Speaking during the event, the Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University, Prof Nawangwe highlighted that amidst challenges like rapid population growth on the continent which will result into problems like food security, emerging diseases, unemployment and also conflicts, there is need for increased investment in research.
Nawangwe said as Makerere, they want to be a hub of knowledge for societal transformation of Africa. To achieve this, he said, there is need to improve on research infrastructure.
“We must modernize laboratories, come out with a central laboratory because we don’t need to build laboratories in every college now. We can have central laboratories. We need a teaching and research hospital very badly; a science and technology part which will actually help the young people incubate their ideas, businesses, begin companies and create jobs for this multitude of the youths coming out,” Nawangwe said.
Lorna Magara, the Chairperson of Council at Makerere, noted that besides reviewing the university’s history, the year-long celebration presents great prospects for Makerere and her stakeholders to renew their commitment to make the University more impactful in its activities in the years to come.
“Therefore, the congregation of our stakeholders today and at subsequent events throughout the coming year provides Makerere University with an opportunity to continue optimizing her ten year strategic plan (2022-2030),” Magara said.
Now in its second year of implementation, she said the plan seeks to create a research and innovations ecosystem that will enable the University’s outputs to have demonstrable economic, environmental, health and social impacts.
Established in 1922 with only 14 students, Makerere University has grown over the years to become one of the leading Universities in the world.
With over 300,000 alumni spread across the globe, the university is celebrating a remarkable journey of touching lives, training and nurturing human resources in different fields/disciplines, and making the world a better place through significant contributions to human and social transformation.