The Makerere University Vice Chancellor has recently revealed a plan to scrap school deans as well as schools. According to Nawangwe’s proposal, the university may consider eliminating the school structure from colleges and elevate the status of school deans to a supervisory role at college level.
Nawangwe’s proposal drew mixed reactions when he presented it to the staff members last week as some members agreed while others noted that they still need to analyze it well. Nawangwe added that the report will be discussed by management and sent to the Senate before it is presented to the University Council.
While commenting on the newly suggested proposal, Dr Ronald Kakungulu-Mayambala, a lecturer at the School of Law and a member of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA), revealed that it will help to improve efficiency in running the colleges.
Dr Mayambala explained further that the School of Law does not have deans but it has delivered its core mandate of teaching and research, as he advocated for implementation of the same approach in the rest of the schools.
“The core functions of the university which are teaching, learning, innovation, research and community outreach are performed at the unit level, whether there are schools or not. It will be a good move to cut costs and improve efficiency since these deans’ roles are duplicating roles of heads of department,” Dr. Mayambala said.
Associate Professor Dr Umar Kakumba from the College of Business and Management Sciences partly supports the proposal but revealed that many questions were left unanswered. Kakumba warned that scrapping schools would overload heads of departments who are already coordinating both the graduate and undergraduate programmes at Makerere.
“It (the proposal) is a double-edged sword. It curtails departmental growth because if they are to grow, what do they grow into? Worldwide, we have units that are called schools which can grow independently but not departments. What are you going to do with the existing schools? The School of Gender does not have a department. What happens?” Dr Kakumba asked.
Dr Deus Kamunyu Muhwezi, the MUASA chairperson declined to speak on behalf of the association because they had not yet been consulted and had not looked at the document. He however said that that since the college system is set for review, that process should allow a conclusive debate, rather than a “sneaky” approach of the proposal.
Another top Makerere official who commented on the proposal was associate Prof Goretti Nabanoga, the Deputy Principal at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences who said that it will be difficult to manage the colleges if the position of deans for co-ordinating academic programmes is removed.
