By Prof. Venancious Baryamureba
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) won the Presidential elections of 18th February 2011 for another term of five years. For the next five years, Makerere University, a public university funded from the consolidated fund, is going to align its human resource development strategies with the NRM 2011-2016 Manifesto on human resource development.
We shall specifically expand higher education through manning over 20 e-degree programmes by 2012 and over 60 e-degree programmes by 2015, in addition to the on campus programmes. Students enrolled on e-degree programmes will not be constrained by time and space and will undertake the education without having to travel to Makerere University campus.
Makerere Vice Chancellor, Prof. Venansius Baryamureba
This is aimed at increasing access to higher education by the poor yet bright students. The fees to be charged on e-degree programmes will be about 1/3 of the current fees of the similar on campus programmes.
The National Council for Higher Education is currently working on guidelines for e-degrees (online degrees). We plan to triple the research output by 2015. Thus the quality of human resources and research as a result of quality education and research culture will spur economic growth and human development. Surely, as night follows day, come 2015, Makerere University will have a student enrolment of at least 100,000 up from 40,000 in 2011 and it will be ranked among the top 3 Universities in Africa regardless of the ranking criteria used.
‘’The NRM government has promised to increase funding to universities including private universities to carry out research. In addition, Public Universities will be assisted to rehabilitate and develop their infrastructure: NRM Manifesto 2011-2016’’.
Therefore, Makerere University as the leading public university will do all that is within its powers to ensure that as many youth as possible access quality higher education.
‘’If our youth is and continues to be educated correctly, all our affairs will take a happy course, if not …. the rest is better left unsaid’’, Platon.
As a University we are going to work towards imparting vocational skills to University graduates, mainly the youth, who have failed to either access employment or create their own jobs.
‘’Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood (maturity).Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual’s actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages’’.
Maturity (psychological)
‘’Maturity is a psychological term used to indicate how a person responds to the circumstances or environment in an appropriate and adaptive manner. This response is generally learned rather than instinctive, and is not determined by one’s age. Maturity also encompasses being aware of the correct time and place to behave and knowing when to act appropriately, according to the situation. While it has been shown that older persons are generally more mature, psychological maturity is not determined by one’s age.
However, for legal purposes, people are not considered psychologically mature enough to perform certain tasks (such as driving, consenting to sex, signing a binding contract or making medical decisions) until they have reached a certain age.
In fact, Judge Julian Mack, who helped create the juvenile court system in the United States, said that juvenile justice was based on the belief that young people do not always make good decisions because they are not mature, but this means that they can be reformed more easily than adults. However, the relationship between psychological maturity and age is a difficult one, and there has been much debate over how to tell if someone is mature, especially regarding social issues like abortion’’.