VC calls for more research in CEDAT

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, has called on staff of the College of Engineering, Design, Art and TEchnology to engage in more research and apply for grants.

Group photo of workshop participants

Prof. Nawangwe was speaking during a one-day pedagogical training for the staff of the Department of Architecture and Physical Planning. The Vice chancellor commended the department for the great work of teaching students but also called on them to engage more in research. “We are beginning to see urbanization so this is a good time for you to engage in research,” he said. He encouraged staff to apply to the Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (RIF) for research grants.

He advised that climate change and issues of energy should be of interest to the Architects and planners to investigate and advise policy makers. On teamwork, the VC advised staff to respect authority and support their leaders. He advised that it was important for the department to have teamwork and shared goals. “What is the philosophy of the department? What are the pertinent issues you must address?” he questioned. If these questions are answered, the VC said, the department was destined for greater things. “There is nothing greater than teamwork and Integrity,” he added.

Prof. Nawangwe shared the story of the beginning of the Dept. of Architecture. The dept. was started by Prof. Nawangwe, and 2 other people and because of teamwork, they were able to graduate one student with a first-class degree from a group of 8 students who enrolled that year. Architects had previously been trained in Nairobi and Soviet Union, present day Russia.

The Principal of CEDAT, Prof. Henry Alinaitwe, called on staff to attract students for the masters courses, saying Msc Architecture had failed to attract any applicants this year. He said this would affect the promotion of staff because they will not be supervising students. He called for a mindset change and advocated positive attitude to work.

The Head of Department, Dr. Tamale Amin Kiggundu highlighted the challenges that the department was facing. These included poor performance of students, students transferring from Architecture to other courses and lack of enrollment at MSc level. It is against this background that the department saw it fit to hold a pedagogical training, with the hope that this will help staff and students of the department.

The training was conducted by Dr. Julian Kasirye, who called on the staff to make sure they appeal to the 3 domains of teaching; 1. Cognitive Domain; 2. Psychomotor Domain, 3. Affective Domain.

The Deputy Principal, Dr. Venny Nakazibwe thanked the VC for making the time to officiate at the training and also appreciated the staff that had made it for the training. She thanked the trainer and encouraged staff to put in practice all that they had learnt during the training. “I hope that we shall be the change that we want to see,” she emphasized.