By Geoffrey Ssenoga
When Hamu Mukasa, the Buganda County chief for Kyaggwe, offered land to build the Bishop Tucker Theological College (BTTC) more than 100 years ago, he set in motion a functional partnership for growing and sustaining a private university. That partnership model has successfully accounted for many landmarks in the development of Uganda Christian University, which metamorphosed from BTTC 25 years ago.
One of the partnerships is the recent collaboration between the Norwegian NLA University and UCU’s School of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMC), which has transformed journalism and communication training in Uganda.
In 2013, UCU signed a $1.3 million partnership agreement with Norway’s NLA University under the Norwegian Program for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED), which offered post-doctoral research studies support, leading to the full professorship of the dean in charge of the School of JMC.
The program also led to the training of five members of the faculty to acquire a PhD, as well as sponsoring graduates for master’s studies and equipping an audio-visual motion picture studio. The graduates have since joined the school as members of the faculty.
As a result of the partnership, the school has undergone a complete revolution, acquiring 10 Handycam video cameras and more than 15 DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras, with their accessories, such as tripods and a comprehensive journalism and communication book bank.
Now, UCU has signed NORHED two, which is bringing more equipment support and faculty development through training to attain doctoral degrees up to 2026.
While partnerships fit with the Christian way of loving and helping one another, they are nevertheless difficult to start and get off the ground without a personal connection. Hamu Mukasa had a personal relationship with Bishop Alfred Tucker, the founder of BTCC, and the Anglican church in Uganda. That, perhaps, explains his generous land donation.
Generations later, partnerships continue to sprout from personal relationships. Terje Skjerdal, the co-ordinator of the NORHED project, reveals that NLA and UCU’s relationship began at a personal level in the United States, where he had gone to study. It there that he met the now Dean of School of Journalism, Media and Communication, Monica Chibita, who was then teaching Development Studies at the university where Skjerdal was. The two later met at conferences on the African continent and promised “to work on something together.”
Another colleague, Assoc. Prof. Carol Azungi, was brought into the loop when she met Terje at the University of Oslo in Norway and responded eagerly to his beckoning when the opportunity to teach in the NORHED program for Uganda Christian University availed itself. Azungi had been an undergraduate student under Chibita’s instruction at Makerere University.
As the second phase of the NORHED program begins, other partnerships could sprout out of the venture.
