Yesterday 7th June 2022, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) through the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT) celebrated its 6th year in producing PhD students.
In the year 2016, DRGT started organizing annual PhD Symposium which was aimed at preparing PhD students and equipping them with the required research skills.
Throughout the years, the number of students enrolling and graduating with PhDs has increased from 8 to 29 graduates.
| Year | Number of PhD graduates |
| 2016 | 8 |
| 2017 | 9 |
| 2018 | 10 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2021 | 24 |
| 2022 | 29 |
Dr. Fred Kaggwa (PhD), one of the DRGT board members revealed the genesis of the symposium was started with the core objective of focusing on students presenting, sharing, and discussing their full PhD research projects in a more relaxed and friendly environment for improvement.
‘’I continue to recall how the idea of Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) Pre-Annual Research Dissemination Conference (ARDC) PhD Symposium came about Six years ago in 2016 as an initiation of Prof. Nixon Kamukama, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs who approached and asked me if I would be interested in championing the organization of a PhD symposium for the entire University. Having attended, presented and benefited from a similar event elsewhere as a PhD student, I accepted and looked forward to taking on the task,’’ Dr. Kaggwa revealed.
‘’With thanks to the university management through the university accounting officer then who made it possible to access funds for catering and printing services as well as honoraria for session chairs. Honestly, organizing the PhD symposium has always been a very time consuming but rewarding experience. On reflection, I am pleased that I took up the responsibility because the evaluation of the event continues to show how important it is for the candidates who actually continued to demand that it becomes an annual University event; Six years now down the road we conduct it. In the last past Six years many have managed to complete and graduate with PhD with support from this forum. To me, this is great joy; annually seeing fruits yield out of these efforts,’’ he added.
‘’It is my prayer and appeal to call upon all PhD prospective candidates to always submit their full PhD work abstracts for such an event. Supervisors with candidates presenting should endeavor to attend so as to build a network, share and receive feedback from a wider multidisciplinary audience. A PhD candidate who does not publicly share his or her work with others, will always be a step behind, share and we shall care,’’ Dr. Kaggwa concluded.
To improve the quality of research produced, MUST recently acquired an officially licensed Turnitin Anti-Plagiarism software and is in the process of implementing the use of this tool to improve the quality of research.
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