{UAH} BARYAMUREEBA – Makerere University Needs a System Review.

Presidential Candidate BARYAMUREEBA – Makerere University Needs a System Review.

Chaos Writer - November 8, 2016

Former Presidential Candidate and Vice Chancellor Makerere University Professor Venansius Baryamureeba lashed out to key stakeholders of the university to quickly administer a solution for the campus' solution.
In a statement released on Monday, he warned anyone of comparing Makerere University to any other public or private university in Uganda is like comparing apples with oranges; it never happens.

Here is the review in system proposed should be;

The staff and students in a college should be brought under one authority of the college administration. Baryamureeba thinks most colleges exceed 5,000 students hence the need for constituent colleges at Makerere to be given some level of federated autonomy in handling of the academic, administrative and affairs, a complete implementation of the Makerere University statute on constituent colleges. For this reason, he says MUBS is open and routinely operational unlike Makerere saying if Colleges were autonomous it would be hard to convince staff or students across colleges to engage in a strike at a same time.

Makerere University needs to switch its current business model that discourages colleges from recruiting private students for there is no incentive reason, to a business model where colleges retain over 60% of the internally generated funds. Baryamureeba believes this strategy will motivate colleges to exploit their niche and generate income under the category of Appropriation In Aid (AIA) from student fees, provision of services, consultancies, grants and donations among others.

The Government needs to put in place a higher education fund through which higher education institutions can access funding based on a well developed funding model. He believes the gov't can come out with its own successful model in allocation of fund parameters. The strategy  of gov't to continue to appropriate funds in the university budget for items like salaries is among the major cause of strikes. The appropriation of funds in the budget should be wholly left to the governing councils that have supreme powers over the affairs of the university.

The Former Vice Chancellor thinks Low unit cost affects Makerere University more than any other university in Uganda as many programs run with few students coupled with duplication of courses in departments and schools at college level. This is a finding by the Auditor General that several universities still charge fees below the unit cost.

The Management of Human resources needs to be decentralized, another point he lays down. He further explains that the central Human resources directorate does not have the capacity to effectively coordinate and monitor human resources in academic staff at college level a reason academic stuff are engaged in duo full time employment, which is in contravention of the provisions of the schedule F-e of the Uganda Public Service Standing Orders. Baryamureeba thinks this will call for a human resource audit for all categories of staff to establish whether they have duties or acceptable workload to undertake during official working hours to improve staff performance and value for money due to effective monitoring.

The financial reporting structures and roles of the University secretary (accounting officer of the University), the University bursar, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for finance and administration and the vice chancellor need to be urgently reviewed so that the University and Tertiary Institutions Act 2001 as amended can be amended. He believes one officer can be responsible for financial management and others can be delegated duties from this officer.

Value for Money Audit. Makerere currently internal audit produces forensic audits on the finances that doesn't reveal too much, the former VC clearly states. He thinks a value for money audit will be able to bring out cases of wasteful expenditure on items like workshops and travels abroad instead of spending the same
funds on core priority activities of the university. This he further thinks will ensure proper activity budgeting and due monitoring and evaluation of budgets. Government can also explore the option of requesting the auditor general to a point an international audit firm to carry out annual external audits.

Job evaluation which is long overdue, an exercise that will reveal that even at the prevailing salary levels some categories of staff are overpaid compared to other public servants with similar qualifications or job profile and their counterparts in the region.

Political Interference.  Makerere University by its nature cannot be divorced from politics in this country, the Professor alleges. So the various political players are always in a fight to have control over it. From his experience as Makerere University Vice Chancellor (VC), the instability and strikes at Makerere University in most cases have some influential politicians and high ranking security officers like those in Uganda Police behind them, he adds. The government needs to devise means of disciplining its cadres once they are found to have been behind strikes and confusion at public universities.

The problems and challenges of Makerere University are many and cannot fit in one article and I shall soon publish them in my upcoming book on Makerere University he concluded.

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Allaah gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him."And if Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He, and if He touches you with good, then He is Able to do all things." (6:17)

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