{UAH} The quality of graduates depends on the quality of trainers

On May 20, in his weekly op-ed, Daniel Kalinaki my favourite Ugandan columnist, posed a very important question that "How many PhDs does it take to install a traffic light in Kampala?" 

I wish I personally had the right response to that, because, just like many Ugandan commuters, we waste too much time in traffic jam for many seemingly simple reasons, one of them being the absence of traffic lights or the presence of non-functional ones on major roads within the city.
 
As recent as last week at an event at Makerere University, the Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe said that, there are less than 1,200 PhD holders in Uganda and 1,000 of these are based at Makerere University alone, yet the country currently has a total of 56 universities, listed on the website of the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).  

So the assumption is that, the remaining PhD holders are distributed among the other 55 universities. Without going into the detail and breakdown of how many of those are in humanities verses those in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (ASET) fields, let us assess the underlying problems. 
On average, only 0.4 per cent of GDP is spent on research and development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) compared to the world average of 1.7 per cent. The number of scientists and engineers are still low compared to industrialised countries. 

The Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region only has 91 researchers per million inhabitants compared to the world average of 1,083 researchers. Sub-Saharan African countries lack a critical mass of graduates in scientific disciplines. Prof Eriabu Lugujjo of Ndejje University will agree with this, because he is a strong advocate for Science and Engineering training. In Uganda, whose GDP was estimated at $35.One billion in 2019 by the World bank, only 0.3 per cent of that GDP is allocated to research, imagine what the impact would be if it were increased to just 1 per cent (approximately $351 million).

Universities historically exist to teach, conduct research, and engage the community. However, with the growing number of people accessing higher education at universities in Uganda and globally, a lot of the focus has been put on teaching and less on research and community engagement. 
This has inevitably compromised the research output, its quality and application in solving real world challenges.  Therefore, for real life problems that require practical interventions, investment in research must be made a priority. There are no two ways about it.

Pedagogy is another very critical factor in determining the quality of university graduates. People must be taught how to teach. Often, graduates are retained as teaching assistants or lecturers based on their excellent academic performance whilst little or no consideration is put into their ability, to ably pass on this knowledge. This has become a problem, because it affects not only the quality of teaching and the way students learn, but also how they gain a deeper grasp of fundamental skills.
 
The investment in human capital development, especially training more PhDs in critical sectors, must be wholistic, such that those who get back into academia to teach, are taught how to teach, so that the quality and new breed of young and emerging scholars is not compromised.   
As a country, it is therefore important to strategically invest in human capital as well as Science, Technology, and Innovation. This strategic investment must be channeled into research and innovation to harness the existing potential of Ugandan youth and institutions of higher learning. 

Only then shall we boost of a knowledge and innovation-led economy, where research and innovation improve productivity, investment opportunities, public health, safety, security and ultimately save time and money wasted in traffic Jam because of non-functional traffic lights or their absence. What better way can our future then be secured than this?  
   Authored by Maureen Agena,                 

   Twitter: @maureenagena

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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