Rebuilding the "Harvard of Africa"

After being "out for the count" for many years, Makerere University in Uganda is in the process of regaining its academic self-respect.

Since 1992, a major NUFU project involving the Universities of Makerere and Bergen has been rebuilding competence and capacity in the natural sciences at Makerere. Almost 50 students have taken their masters' degrees in science and 15 have finished their doctorates. As a matter of comparison, during the whole of the 80s, very few masters degrees and absolutely no doctorates were completed at the Ugandan university.

The history of Makerere started in 1922. The first students were educated to carry out practical work for the colonial power.

If you visit the campus in 2001 you will find a busy scene outside the white buildings with their characteristic blue window-frames. Young people flirt with each other as they stroll between lectures along the pavements bordered by flowers and lush hedges. There have been enormous developments at Uganda's biggest university. The number of students has risen from 5 - 6000 at the beginning of the nineties to more than 20,000 today.

"Building for the Future" is the motto of the University, which was known in the sixties as the "Harvard of Africa". At that time Makerere was a well organised and functioning university that was particularly strong in medical studies.

Then came the dictator Milton Obote, followed by the infamous Idi Amin. The University was destroyed and virtually stripped of resources. Many of its staff were killed or driven into exile. All non-state organisations and donors also disappeared. In the eighties, when the country was once more under the control of Obote, Makerere University was almost completely without resources and equipment. Museveni, the current President, took over in 1986, and Uganda turned its face again to the outside world.

Unusable equipment

During the 1990s fascilities at Makerere have improved considerably. Photo: Vincent Mugaba

Endre Lillethun, Professor of Physics at the University of Bergen, visited Makerere by chance in 1988. He was shocked by the complete lack of laboratory equipment in the physics and chemistry departments.

"What little existed was badly damaged, and so much had been stolen that what was left might just as well have been swept up and thrown away", says Lillethun.

Something would have to be done about this situation, thought Lillethun. In 1991 he got a "bite" from the recently started Nufu , which promised to provide funding for a basic natural sciences programme. Physics, chemistry, science education, mathematics and biology were the main areas of cooperation, and the project was organised as a cooperative effort involving the two universities.

Professor P.J.M. Ssebuwufu has been Rector of Makerere University for nine years. He says that the turbulence times of the 70s and 80s were so serious that the University lost many of its qualified teachers.

"Nufu came along at just the right time, in fact at a very critical point of time. Before 1991 everything was extremely heavy going, and there were few fellowships available. Also, unlike the Faculties of Medicine and Agriculture, the Faculty of Science had been unable to attract donors. Now we have rebuilt our teaching capacity and competence", says Ssebuwufu. He hopes that there will be more research cooperation in the next phase of the project, because Makerere now has more to contribute.

"Sandwich" model

Masters and doctoral students in the Nufu programme have been trained according to the "sandwich" method. In practice, this means that students from Makerere have come to Bergen in order to make contact with their supervisors and to learn how to use the University Library, Internet, etc., while as far as possible, teaching has been given at Makerere. During the past few years it has gradually become less necessary to offer masters students this sort of training because their own university in Uganda has been able to carry out these tasks.

Professor Livingstone S. Luboobi, Dean of the Faculty of Science and coordinator of the interuniversity cooperative project, believes that an important aspect of the Nufu programme is that the students receive their education in Uganda.

"The sandwich programme gives our students an opportunity to experience another country, another culture and a different institution, while we do not lose them after they have completed their education. Furthermore, these students will be the future coordinators of cooperative project, for example with the University of Bergen", says Luboobi, who feels that a further advantage of Nufu is that the money goes directly to the University. This means less administration than if it had gone via the national authorities.

Good relationships

Both Luboobi and Ssebuwufu think that cooperating with the Norwegians has been a positive experience.

"We laugh at the same sort of things, and humour brings out the best in people. I want to emphasise that this is different from accepting money from a donor. We are quite equal in this relationship. Everyone here is quite overwhelmed by this collaboration, and by how well it functions. One of the most important aspects of cooperation is that we plan everything together, which means that we can point out areas that we think require particular efforts", says Ssebuwufu, who thinks that his Norwegian partners have a sophisticated picture of Africa.

"The media only write about the negative aspects, and people never think that some things are going well. I believe that the main reason for our good cooperation with Norway and the University of Bergen is that they understand the real problems of Africa. Cooperation has given us belief in ourselves and has been a catalyst for the support that we are now receiving from several donors", says the Rector.

Makerere has built up a good reputation and is attracting a number of foreign partners and donors. NORAD is a major participant, having given more than NOK 100 million over a period of five years. The Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Cooperation and the Swedish development aid organisation Sida are other examples of organisations that are represented at Makerere.

More than an after-dinner speech

Andreas Steigen has been coordinator of the Norwegian side of the cooperative project since 1998, when Endre Lillethun retired. Steigen stresses good relations as the key to the success of the collaboration.

"My feeling is that there has always been a good climate of cooperation. The point of departure for Nufu is that cooperation is based on positions of equality. Some might regard this as after-dinner speaking, but my impression is that this is precisely what we have managed to achieve", says Steigen. A good example of this is that it was a Ugandan doctoral student in physics who had the idea for a measuring instrument for the oil industry, which has since been patented.

More science students needed

Just like most other countries, Uganda lacks people with scientific training. In order to build a technological platform for the country, the Government has just strengthened the position of science in schools by making it a compulsory subject. Good brains capable of rebuilding the country's infrastructure and developing industry are needed.

Uganda is in the midst of a modernisation process, and mobile telephones can be heard ringing all over the campus. Most of them belong to young people with a taste for European clothes. Hair has got to be smooth, and the hair-styling sector is earning good money from the fact that curly hair is seriously unfashionable. The papers are running a debate on whether young girls should stay out late at night and drink beer.

Times are changing. Too fast, think some people, but the telephones keep ringing and in the Internet café they are playing English pop music. The future is on its way, no matter what.

"We like to listen to pop music and spend time with our friends", say these young students from Faculty of Social Science.

Academic partnership

The University of Bergen has committed itself to a wide-ranging programme of cooperation with Makerere University, a programme that will continue until 2014.

In 1999 the two universities signed a wide-ranging agreement to cooperate. The agreement, which will be in effect for 15 years, is the most binding agreement ever entered into by the University of Bergen with another university. Among other aspects, the two universities have agreed to prioritise the joint cooperative project.

Thelma Kraft, Centre for Studies of Environment and Resources, University of Bergen, administers the agreement.

"It is fine to surf with the wind behind you when other people have made the waves", says Thelma Kraft. She is employed by the Centre for Studies of Environment and Resources to administer the frame agreement, with the help of Sidsel Kjølleberg and other colleagues.

The agreement and the cooperative programme are run by the Centre. Kraft hopes that the agreement will mean that more students and researchers from the University of Bergen will travel to Uganda for periods of study and research. She emphasises that we now have to look ahead and realise the potential of the agreement.

While the main focus of the agreement so far has been on the natural sciences, the programme has also applied for support for projects in the fields of health, work-related illnesses, dental health, coastal zone management and gender research.

Thelma Kraft would like to establish an interdisciplinary forum for people working in the Bergen Makerere project. "This would allow researchers to keep each other informed, and we would be able to coordinate the way in which money is used in order to improve the economics of the project. We have to avoid competing with each other; it is better to think holistically", says Kraft.