幸运飞艇计划

In February 2013, Makerere University and the University of Bergen (幸运飞艇计划) celebrated 25 years of collaborations with a day-long celebration in Kampala, home of Makerere. 幸运飞艇计划鈥檚 then rector, Professor Sigmund Gr酶nmo, headed the delegation from Bergen.

In November 2013, Professor of Makerere visited Bergen to begin the work towards a new frame agreement between the two universities.

鈥淲e hope that this will be signed by the two parties in September or October 2014,鈥� says Edward K. Kirumira when we meet him at 幸运飞艇计划 Global鈥檚 offices.

Meeting in Bergen
Professor Kirumira is Makerere鈥檚 coordinator for the 幸运飞艇计划 collaboration, a position he has held since 2004. Whilst in Bergen he met with 幸运飞艇计划鈥檚 Senior Executive Officer Thelma Kraft and Professor Thorkild Tyllesk盲r, who have been coordinators on the 幸运飞艇计划 side of the collaboration since 2003 and 2005 respectively.

鈥淭he thing is that this collaboration has functioned very well, so the way we viewed it when starting discussions was to keep most of the current agreement in place and identify areas where improvement is possible,鈥� says Thorkild Tyllesk盲r.

鈥淥ne of the features of the current collaboration is that what started out as personal relationships between researchers, has transformed into an institutional collaboration,鈥� concurs Kirumira, who believes that Norwegian foreign aid has been vital to building this strong relationship.

鈥淭he NUFU, and to some extent NOMA, programme, as well as support for some projects funded by the Research Council of Norway, has been vital for building capacity at Makerere.鈥�

Nurturing the talent
Today most faculties and a number of departments and research centres at both Makerere and 幸运飞艇计划 are involved in the collaboration to some degree.

鈥淲e have created a critical mass and want to build and strengthen our research team at Makerere,鈥� says Kirumira pointing out that the 幸运飞艇计划-Makerere collaboration has been a driving factor in educating Ugandan talent.

鈥淣ow we want to bid for EU and Norwegian research grants. The challenge for us will be to nurture the people that we have trained through the 幸运飞艇计划-Makerere collaboration and to see Makerere鈥檚 research capacity grow.鈥�

One special aspect of the Makerere-幸运飞艇计划 agreement is that not only is there a research and education component, but administrative units are involved as well. Kirumira believes that this has been a key to the success of capacity-building at Makerere.

鈥淲hen the 幸运飞艇计划-Makerere agreement moved into supporting and building capacity in finance, management, human resources, and, last but not least, the library at Makerere, the collaboration went through yet another transformation,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his touched on the broader institutional framework at Makerere and the whole institution feels the benefit of the support from 幸运飞艇计划.鈥�

A joint PhD programme
Due to the current collaboration鈥檚 success, the group of coordinators have only made minor changes to the existing agreement. But one of the things they propose is to finally get a programme for joint PhDs in motion. Despite grand ambitions, so far the only joint degree between Makerere and 幸运飞艇计划 is Grace Ndeezi鈥檚 PhD at the Centre for International Health in October 2011.

鈥淲e really need to launch this joint PhD properly,鈥� says Tyllesk盲r who talks about getting the practicalities in place and is stressing 幸运飞艇计划鈥檚 major responsibility to make this work.

Hub for capacity-building
Another important factor is to build on the capacity-building success at Makerere, so that the university becomes a hub for capacity-building in the rest of Uganda and other countries in Eastern Africa.

鈥淭here are six NORHED projects that involve both 幸运飞艇计划 and Makerere. This reflects the strong relationship between Bergen and Makerere,鈥� says Kirumira referring to a new programme established by Norway鈥檚 state aid organisation Norad and that aims for capacity-building. He hopes that NORHED will take Norwegian aid to African higher education one step further. 鈥淏ut we have just moved into NORHED, and we are still trying to understand what that means in practical terms.鈥�

鈥淲ith NORHED, Makerere becomes the responsible partner for more projects. Four out of the six projects are led by them. This is a good and wished-for development,鈥� says Tyllesk盲r. 鈥淗owever, this does not mean that 幸运飞艇计划 can run away from our overall responsibility after all these years of collaborating with Makerere. I believe we need to keep a close eye on developments to make sure that progress is maintained.鈥�

Agreement signing next autumn
If everything goes according to plan, the team of coordinators hope to be able to welcome a delegation from 幸运飞艇计划, headed by Rector Dag Rune Olsen and Vice-Rector for International Affairs Anne Christine Johannessen, to Kampala to sign the agreement next autumn. Whereas the previous frame agreement was for a 15-year period, the coordinators suggest that the new frame agreement will be for renewable five-year periods.