By Sarah Mazirwe – Kampala, Uganda, Tuesday, January 14, 2019.
Makerere University which is one of Africa’s premier universities is holding its 70th graduation ceremony, Tuesday, January 14, 2020, National Telegraph has been told.
Makerere University, Kampala is Uganda’s largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970, records show.
A total of 13,509 students are set to graduate with doctorates, masters, bachelors, and diplomas in various courses. 420 are graduating with first-class degrees with Makerere University Business School (MUBS) a distant college affiliated to MAK specializing in business studies.
The graduation ceremony is starting today and ending on January 17, 2020, and will take place at the University’s Freedom Square. The first colleges to graduate will be the colleges of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, College of Education and External Studies, and the College of Health Sciences.
On January 15, students from the College of Business and Management Sciences, College of Computing and Information Sciences and College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity will be graduated.
MUBS students are expected to graduate on January 16 while on Friday, January 17, students from the College of Engineering, Design, Art, and Technology and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) and School of Law will graduate.
This year, the university is graduating more females (50.5%) than males (49.5%). The number of graduands has increased by 176 students from last year’s 13, 333 graduates.
The overall best student, Rita Namukose who has been pursuing a Bachelor of International Business scored a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.92, making her the best female student.
CHUSS had the most first classes (50) followed by the College of Education and External Studies (36) and the College of Computing and Information Science (30).
MUBS had 195 first classes while the remaining 225 are from Makerere University. The School of Law has no first-class while the College of Health Sciences registered one first class.
History of Makerere University
The university was established in 1922 as a humble technical school. In January of that year, the school, which was later renamed Uganda Technical College, opened its doors to 14 day students who began studying Carpentry, Building, and Mechanics.
The College later started offering various other courses in Medical Care, Agriculture, Veterinary Sciences and Teacher Training. It expanded over the years to become a Center for Higher Education in East Africa in 1935. In 1937, the College started developing into an institution of higher education, offering post-school certificate courses.
In 1949, it became a University College affiliated to the University College of London, offering courses leading to the general degrees of its then mother institution. With the establishment of the University of East Africa in June 29, 1963, the special relationship with the University of London came to a close and degrees of the University of East Africa were instituted.
On July 1, 1970, Makerere became an independent national university of Uganda, offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses leading to its own awards. Makerere University offers not only day but also evening and external study programmes to a student body of about 35,000 undergraduates and 3,000 postgraduates (both Ugandan and foreign). It is also a very active center for research. It will be celebrating 100 years of existence in 2022.