KAMPALA — Makerere University in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK have been awarded 716,004 Euros from the British Council as part of the International Credit Mobility (ICM)programme of the European Commission.
The grant is expected to support the mobility of students and staff between the two institutions from 2020 to 2023.
The project according to officials will be implemented as part of the 10-year partnership between Makerer and NTU that is led by the School of Public Health.
The current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two universities (2018 – 2023) was signed by the Makerere Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe and NTU Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Prof. Cillian Ryan during the latter’s visit to Uganda in 2018.
The new project will support Makerere students (undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD) and staff (teaching and non-teaching) to spend between 2 weeks and 2 months at NTU for training, research and other collaboration, as well as participate in short-courses, seminars, workshops, conferences and other academic events as a form of capacity building.
A total of 99 Makererstudents and staff are expected to travel to the UK during the 3 years of the project from the College of Health Sciences (CHS); College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and BioSecurity (COVAB); and College of Agricultural and Environment Sciencest (CAES).
The specific disciplines to participate in the programme include public health, microbiology, nursing, pharmacy, veterinary, environment and agriculture.
During a recent meeting regarding Makerere becoming the fourth international strategic partner of NTU, Prof. Nawangwe was pleased that this partnership that started in a humble way at the School of Public Health had expanded to benefit other schools and colleges in the university.
The Dean of the School of Public Health Prof. Rhoda Wanyenze noted that collaboration between multiple disciplines, as demonstrated in the recently awarded grant, is crucial to address the challenges affecting health and other sectors in Uganda such as antimicrobial resistance.
“This grant will build on the success of the earlier grant (2018 – 2020) that supported mobility of students and faculty between the 2 universities, mainly in public health,” Pro. Wanyeza said.
