{"id":67560,"date":"2024-02-24T17:06:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-24T17:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=67560"},"modified":"2024-02-24T15:53:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T15:53:03","slug":"authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing","title":{"rendered":"Authorities blame Makerere’s performance decline on understaffing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Makerere University is currently grappling with acute understaffing with at least 1, 700 critical offices remaining vacant, the university’s authority have revealed.<\/b><\/p>\n

While appearing before the Parliament\u2019s education committee on Thursday, Prof Umar Kakumba, deputy vice chancellor in charge of Academics at the country\u2019s oldest and biggest public university revealed that the institution\u2019s academic performance has for years continued to decline, partly due to understaffing that has continued to escalate over the years.<\/p>\n

READ: Understaffing in universities affecting research – NCHE<\/p>\n

Makerere tightens rope on staff absenteeism<\/p>\n

Makerere has more than 50% positions still vacant<\/p>\n

Prof Kakumba noted although the approved number of professors is 419, only 78 are currently employed at the institution while only 155 associate professors are being employed out of the approved 433.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor senior lecturers, the establishment is 596 but only 274 are filled leaving a gap of 322. We need 871 lecturers but only 515 are filled while 356 slots remain vacant. 423 slots of the approved 819 assistant lecturer slots also remain vacant,\u201d Prof Kakumba said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more professors and this has also affected our performance and ranking lately because other universities have continued to get more professors, associate professors and all the other necessary human resources at various levels,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

According to the statistics presented by Prof Kakumba, Makerere\u2019s understaffing in the academic department stands at 55 percent with a staffing gap of 1, 720 employees.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the university has a total staff establishment of 7, 136 (both academic and non-academic staff). However, only 40 percent (2, 853 positions) are filled, leaving 60 percent (4,283 positions) vacant.<\/p>\n

Equally, Prof Kakumba reiterated the urgent need to recruit technicians in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. He noted that shortage of technicians led to the suspension of the accreditation to Makerere\u2019s veterinary medicine graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Medical Council also threatened to suspend the accreditation of graduates of Makerere medical school. Technicians are a mandatory requirement for laboratory-based training and related practicals in the Stem disciplines,\u201d Prof Kakumba said.<\/p>\n

The University requires to recruit 258 technicians with a total annual wage implication of Shs8.8 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, recruitment can be phased if the required funds are not fully available. We also need a wage requirement of Shs4.34b for 184 academic staff who qualify for promotion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Legislators on the education committee reasoned that government should take up immediate actions to ensure that all public universities are given the necessary support to ensure quality higher education in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIssues affecting public universities are almost the same year after year, with such challenges we are likely to produce half-baked graduates and not so later, our education sector doubted,\u201d Mr Nathan Itugon, MP Kashari South said.<\/p>\n

This Publication has learnt that the ministry of finance has scheduled a meeting with the top management of all public universities today [Friday] and among others, the two are expected to discuss how to increase the meager budget allocation to the higher education institutions.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Makerere University is currently grappling with acute understaffing with at least 1, 700 critical offices remaining vacant, the university’s authority have revealed. While appearing before the Parliament\u2019s education committee on Thursday, Prof Umar Kakumba, deputy vice chancellor in charge of Academics at the country\u2019s oldest and biggest public university revealed that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":67559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-67560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nAuthorities blame Makerere's performance decline on understaffing - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Makerere University is currently grappling with acute understaffing with at least 1, 700 critical offices remaining v ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Authorities blame Makerere's performance decline on understaffing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Makerere University is currently grappling with acute understaffing with at least 1, 700 critical offices remaining v ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-24T17:06:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/02\/sm_1708777340.544774.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Authorities blame Makerere’s performance decline on understaffing\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-24T17:06:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing\"},\"wordCount\":496,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/02\/sm_1708777340.544774.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/authorities-blame-makereres-performance-decline-on-understaffing\",\"name\":\"Authorities blame Makerere's performance decline on understaffing - 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