The Ad-hoc committee appointed by the Makerere University Senate to review the policy on appointments and promotions of the academic staff of Makerere University interacted with a section of academic members of staff at CEDAT to obtain their views aimed at making the required improvements in the processes.
The committee members led by Dr. Kikooma Julius at CEDAT include Dr. Cyprian Misinde, who is also the Director of Quality Assurance, Assoc. Prof Amanda Tumusiime, the Dean, of Margaret Trowel School of Industrial and Fine Art, Assoc. Professor Jude Ssempebwa, Dean of the East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development (EASHED) Prof. John Baptist Tumuhairwe from CAES and Assoc. Prof. Ronald Naluwairo, Principal School of Law.
Dr. Kikooma Julius, while introducing the objectives of the committee and the objective of the interaction with staff at CEDAT said the mandate of the team was to get proposals for improvements in the policy of recruitment and promotion of academic staff of Makerere University. He said the staff input was to focus on key areas including the promotion processes and procedures, requirements or qualifications for promotion, promotion tracks, systemic delays in promotion, and flexibility in recruitment.
During the meeting, several concerns were raised including the issue of consideration of authorship especially when supervisors publish with students, issues of community service as well as professional support rendered by staff at university projects, bouncing back applications that have gone through the processes, and staff asked to start the process all over again, the absence of the function of an appeal if a given staff is said not to have qualified, timely and consistent promotions, the staff ceilings that make it difficult to promote staff in a given unit, and why some people get promoted faster while for others it is a long process and many more.
Prof. Moses Musinguzi, the Principal CEDAT urged the college staff to make their inputs as open as possible and to utilize the given forum to raise concerns that have over time affected staff aspiring for promotions as well as hindering departments to recruit and ensure staff are promoted when due.