By Israel Kisakye
In a move to boost the academic profile of Uganda Christian University (UCU), the institution’s Directorate of Post Graduate Studies has introduced a special training to skill graduate students to be able to produce publication-worthy research.
The move, it is hoped, will make UCU one of the leading research-based institutions on the African continent.
“We have been experiencing a challenge with the progress and quality of dissertations produced by students,” noted Dr. Godwin Awio, head of graduate publications, at UCU at the inaugural meeting in May 2022. The series, Awio believes, will improve the skills and the research output at the university, as well as quality of dissertations produced by students.
The head of research training in post graduate studies at UCU, Dr. Joseph Owor, noted that the seminars will cover both the main campus and the constituent colleges. Academic staff from all the faculties are expected to attend the trainings that will be conducted every Wednesday, starting the second week of the semester, for five weeks. Each session is expected to have two facilitators.
“Less than 5% of our research output is good enough to be edited for publication,” Owor said in an email communication to staff on April 18. “We need to improve this ratio and we can only do this collectively.”
According to the program, the seminars will cover several research approaches and areas, including quantitative research, data analysis (correlation and regression), mixed research method, use of theory in research, population and sampling, and research design.
The trainings will be facilitated by some of the topnotch researchers at UCU, such as Prof. Edson Kalengyo, Dr. Miria Anguyo, Dr. Angella Napakol, Dr. John Livingston Mutyaba and Dr. Annette Kezaabu.
For the Trinity Semester, which runs from May to August, the trainings were conducted from May 18 to June 15. Maureen Nagitta a first-year student of Master of Business Administration (MBA) who was one of the participants, noted that the training gave her an opportunity to learn how to write a quality dissertation, as well as improve her research skills.
Dr. Awio noted that to produce quality research, the students need time. He, therefore, urged his colleagues, the academics, to avail that time to the students.
“If the students have a positive attitude towards the training series, there will be an increase in the number of graduates and the enrolled students,” he explained.
Dickson Tumuramye, the Assistant Registrar at the directorate, concurred with Awio, saying they are aiming at making the trainings the magic bullet to reduce the turn-around time for graduate students during research.
“The seminars will make UCU a center of research and academic writing, as well as make its research more visible,” he noted.
Dr. John Livingstone Mutyaba, one of the facilitators, says the seminars will re-orient the students who have been encountering challenges in their academic research.
“Students come from different backgrounds and, some have been in the field for a longtime, so they possibly forgot the skills,” Mutyaba explained, noting that the seminars will offer an avenue for re-skilling the students.
