Makerere University's golden era and today's state of higher learning

One of the positive developments in East Africa during the last two decades has been the enormous demand for higher education which has led to the mushrooming of universities and other institutions of higher learning in the region.

According to Yeko Acato, secretary to Uganda’s National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), they have so far registered five public and 27 private universities in the country. Makerere University is the oldest and most prestigious university in eastern Africa.

When I graduated in 1970, there was only one university in the entire East African region and it was appropriately called the University of East Africa. The Class of 1970 was the last of the University of East Africa which had three constituent colleges, namely Makerere University College, University of Nairobi and the University of Dar es Salaam.

Dr Julius K. Nyerere, an alumnus of Makerere, was the one and only Chancellor of the University of East Africa. Some prominent East Africans who are alumni of Makerere include President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and former President Ben Mkapa of Tanzania. The entire university community of Makerere in 1970, including students, teaching staff and support staff was about 10,000, at most.

I am informed that today the student population of Makerere University is at least 40,000 and counting. The population explosion at Makerere is both an opportunity and a challenge. Good, because it has opened the doors to a large number of people who are yearning for higher education for various reasons. Bad, because the quantitative success achieved at Makerere has been at the expense of academic excellence.

As Makerere expanded, the quality of education and the high academic standards which hitherto made the institution famous declined, quite drastically at one stage. In 1999, I expressed, in writing as an Old Makererean, my deep concern to then Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Ssebwufu, about the trend towards the commercialisation of Makerere. I copied my letter to Prof. Kayanja, Vice Chancellor of Mbarara University of Science & Technology (MUST) and Mr F. X. Lubanga, Permanent Secretary, ministry of Education.

Prof. Kayanja agreed entirely with me while Prof. Ssebwufu argued that he was compelled by lack of resources to introduce private sponsorship of students. It, however, gives me pleasure to note that Makerere’s academic standards are once again on the rise. Makerere of the 1960s had much better living conditions for both students and teaching staff.

Search for Truth

Strikes by teaching staff were unheard of. Despite the relative decline in academic standards, the primary role and purpose of university education at Makerere and elsewhere in Africa remains the same. The primary role of a good university is not to produce job seekers and job makers. This erroneous assumption is a major root cause of the decline in academic standards. I believe the primary role of a university is to advance the growth of the frontiers of knowledge and understanding of our environment in all aspects.

In this regard, I recall an event which took place at the end of a week-long “Fresher’s conference” in June 1967, when the Principal of Makerere University College, Prof. Y.K. Lule, administered an oath to all “Fresh Men and Women” at the Main Hall, followed by a reception. The oath we took was, in a nutshell, to seek the truth and nothing but the truth; not to search for or create jobs. I have ever since been tied to that oath.

The search for the truth, which contributes to the growth of knowledge, remains one of my primary goals in life. It is, therefore, regrettable that Makerere stopped that important practice. I believe our young people must be inspired and encouraged to pursue higher education and learning, first and foremost to acquire knowledge for its intrinsic value because knowledge is power.

One of the primary objectives and ends of good education is, in fact, to develop and nurture a questioning and inquisitive mind; to be skeptical about easy promises and quick-fix type of solutions and to apply the lessons of history or past experience creatively.

Getting a good job is certainly important for survival, but that does not make job search the primary objective for going to school, especially for going to study at a university. If one looks around, most of the wealthy people in Uganda and Africa are not university graduates. I should like to express the hope that Makerere will, once again, focus on its historical and core role, which is to contribute to the advancement of the frontiers of knowledge by means of original research and sound teaching, for the benefit of humankind.

Mr Acemah is a political scientist, consultant and a retired career ambassador. Email: hacemah@gmail.com