Professor Ezra Suruma conferring a PhD on a student during the 72nd graduation ceremony
During Makerere University’s week-long 72nd graduation ceremony, over 100 docrate degrees were conferred upon students from several disciplines. However, there are raising concerns about what these Doctoral graduates bring to the table at the end of the day.
Dr Anthony Tibaingana, a lecturer at the College of Business and Management Sciences at Makerere University, is one of the several who seem to be troubled by this phenomenon. Talking to our reporter on the sidelines of the graduation, Tibaingana shared that ideally doctoral graduates should bring fresh knowledge, discovering new things (innovation and invention), and developing new skills.
From Tibaingana’s view, much of the PhDs and Research Output currently produced by Makerere and other universities in Uganda do not provide any significant contributions towards the societal change or development thus rendering them ‘worthless’.
“We need an honest discussion about this subject,” Tibaingana told our reporter. “Ideally, PhDs are designed not to win kudos within the academic community, but rather to discover something new that will be useful for practitioners and have real social impact. Today, PhDs are not yielding any tangible results.”
Tibaingana added that even when a PhD graduate generates new knowledge or innovates something, most of them remain in laboratories or university libraries where they gather dust for years. “It can often feel like contemporary academia is more about chasing citations,” he lamented. “Most academic work is shared only with a particular scientific community, rather than policymakers or businesses, which makes it entirely disconnected from practice.”
He added that several PhDs are not designed to solve any problem as they are dictated by funders: “Many people take up PhDs or research projects suggested by funders but have nothing to do with our societies, this leaves the societal problems unattended as researchers spend energies on issues that don’t matter.”
Professor Ezra Suruma, the Chancellor of Makerere University, also stated that there are several challenges in communities that need to be addressed, emphasizing the need for researchers to focus on seeking concrete answers.
Professor Suruma however stated that in order for PhDs and other research outputs to be useful, they must be translated into a format usable by members of the public and policymakers rather than being left on their own within Makerere.
Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, the vice-chancellor of Makerere University, seems to be concerned about the same issue. Nawangwe, who claims that Makerere University’s research budgets have been steadily increasing in recent years, is quick to point out that the university is presently facing a problem in translating research and breakthroughs into services and products that would benefit the community.
Professor Nawangwe observed that as the oldest institution of higher learning transitions to a research-driven model, specific emphasis must be placed on ensuring that their research has a societal effect.
Although much of the research fail to be turned into products and services, Nawangwe adds that it should be noted that Makerere University has in the recent years produced several prototypes with some of them having potential for commercialization but the innovators and the university as well lack resources to push them to the market.
Indeed Zaid Kitagano, 2022 Makerere University PhD graduate whose thesis focused on the dynamics of university technology transfer, stated that throughout his study, he discovered that institutions are disconnected from society, policymakers, and businesses.
Kitagano went on to say that the gaps must be bridged by forging direct connections between communities, industry, and policymakers, as well as universities, to support the development of tangible services and products.
A 2021 study by Makerere University College of Education and External Studies found in Uganda 1,179 PhDs of which 1,025 are from public universities while 172 are from private universities. However, it also queried Uganda’s Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) graduates saying that most of them do not provide any significant contribution to the country.
The study blamed the lack of a curriculum for many doctoral studies, and the shortage of infrastructure to finance training among other factors to be responsible for the problem at hand.
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It’s totally wrong to say the PhDs being produced is impactless. I guess the author is trying to quote external impact. We should note that ‘impactful stidies’ needs impactful support. See how much our very own mentors/profs/supervisors put in their support. Secondly, the cost associated with research at College of Business is not the same as in Medicine or Molecular Biosiences. And how much do we as a country inject into basic research not to talk about applied research that we always yell about?
If the owner of this statement believes he is right then, why is it that foreign companies and institutions hunt for such ‘trashed’ PhDs and translate them to their benefits in the shadow of Pos-Docs and R&Ds. But again, you quoted we do PhD for citations only. I guess you hold a PhD and if so, have you ever asked yourself why the ‘foreign impactful’ researchers/institutions/countries/companies build on/cite our ‘impactless’ PhDs, translate them and sell the products/services back to us? If so, then something different from what you are saying is wrong.
Instead of writing dissertations they do projects
The commentary lacks depth. It continues our traditional problem of wailing rather than providing solutions. I think we should first congratulate our universities for managing to send out these graduates. Unless U are suggesting that they dnt deserve the degrees.( that would be another discuss). However, u can’t just seat in ur comfort zone and start blaming the graduates on lack of innovation. Do u really know the challenges they are facing? It’s not ok to bash people without understanding the circumstances under which they operate or study. how much financing have u or anybody made available to support these students and their potential inventions? If u think the students can finance themselves to invent then you are sleep- walking. People should stop commenting just for the sake of it, which seems to be the case here. Please critique not criticize. Blame the system not the graduates, make money available and not even the sky can limit novelty in the Ugandan PhD arena. So please stop discouraging our PhD achievers: add to the debt rather than criticizing.
The main purpose of founding any university in the world is to do research and generate knowledge for the society. The peak of the generated knowldge through research is expected to be innovations, inventions and solution to problems that face the aimed society.
The big problem that face most universities in Africa is the lack of funds from their own governments granted with an agenda of solving specific problems. Consequently, since researches and PhDs must be produced by these universities with or without funds from within, they will address the agenda of the funders, who are in most cases foreign western governments and their agencies.
The relevance of PhDs research products will not easily be addressed unless our governments decide to dictate things through funding on what they need for their people from outputs of research projects. It should be remembered that you cannot harvest where you didn’t plant.
The main purpose of founding any university in the world is to do research and generate knowledge for the the society. The peak of the generated knowldge through research is expected to be innovations, inventions and solution to problems that face the aimed society.
The big problem that face most universities in Africa is the lack of funds from their own governments granted with an agenda of solving specific problems. Consequently, since researches and PhDs must be produced by these universities with or without funds from within, they will address the agenda of the funders, who are in most cases foreign western governments and their agencies.
The relevance of PhDs research products will not easily be addressed unless our governments decide to dictate things through funding on what they need for their people from outputs of research projects. It should be remembered that you cannot harvest where you didn’t not plant.
Such remarks are generalized. Each doctoral thesis should be reviewed with a view to identification of aspects that can be turned into innovations, registered as intellectual property and afterwards commercialized in alliance with Private Sector Foundation/Uganda Manufacturer s Association or similar bodies, or used to tackle practical problems. The theses summarized in the Doctoral Degree Graduation booklet at last week’s graduation, particularly from the health, technology, ICT and even law(on handling rape victims) disciplines have potential solutions.
Invite prof laban Ayiro from Daystar university Kenya the lecture on research methodology and emphasis without plagiarism