By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
The public has mixed feelings about the performance of Prof. Vanansius Baryamureeba; the acting Vice Chancellor of Makerere University who has held that office now for ten months. Whereas the university has improved in Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (July 2010) making it among the top 15 highly ranked universities in Africa, analysts attribute this raking to improved media relations employed by the flamboyant Baryamureeba than actual progressive works and innovation. The current ranking (September 2010) indicates that the university has again improved by two places to an enviable position of 13. Baryamureeba will go down in history books as having been the first university vice chancellor to open the gates of the institution to the media. He has liberalized media access to the university to such an extent that Makerere today favourably competes with the well known newsmakers in the country which seek to polish their image through regular press conferences. Baryamureeba seems to have learnt from the mistake his predecessor, Prof. Livingstone Luboobi made of deliberately antagonizing the media. Vanansius knows the power of the media. Although one can argue that Luboobi was arguably one of the most inconsequential vice chancellors Makerere has had in history, his undoing can be greatly attributed to his poor working relations with the media than his actual achievements. His management weaknesses not withstanding, he had a weak public relations system. A combination of poor management, lack of innovation and bad press made Luboobi’s days at the helm of Makerere the most gloom in the history of the once internationally acclaimed institution.
The public is yet to correlate the message that Baryamureeba depicts in the soon-to- become-monotonous press conferences with what is actually taking place at the university. Questions abound as to whether the rosy picture that Baryamureeba portrays in his media relations is what is pertaining on the ground. I have talked to a few people both teaching and non teaching staff about their opinions of Baryamureeba’s performance so far after ten months in office. The greater number think that Vanansius is more of a loud talker than an implementer. They also accuse him of high- handedness, intolerance and desire to portray himself as a hands-on, result oriented corporate guy. They go ahead to down play his much taunted achievements particularly that of spearheading the establishment of the faculty of ICT as a project that was bound to be successful because of the amount of resources provided by the donors. Baryamurereba’s critics think that with the amount of money that was availed to put up the ICT faculty together with the commitment exhibited by the donors; any person in charge would have pulled off the project’s execution with minimum glitches. In fact Baryamureeba is accused of having embezzled a lot of funds from the project which he used to live a lifestyle similar to that of crazy, fame-seeking young carefree celebrity, a description not fit for any serious academic.
Although Baryamureeba claims to be a promoter of institutions and systems, he is sometimes too ambitious and impatient that he often sidesteps the very systems he himself advocates for. He is on record as having told the media that the university was soon to lay off 500 part-time lecturers. He announced this without consulting the appropriate organ of the university. Senior staff were shocked to read the story in the newspapers when the issue had not been discussed nor had it been considered by any university policy making organ.
Recently the University suspended its doctor of philosophy degree (PhD) programme in Education Management and Administration over inadequate teaching staff. This became the twenty-first course to be suspended at Makerere this year. This may be a good move but it also points out to the inherent weaknesses at Makerere about lack of capacity especially in providing a conducive environment to train and retain eminent scholars within its ranks. One of the laudable actions by Baryamureeba’s administration was the successful recall and appointment of seasoned scholar Prof. Mahmood Mamdani to head the once powerful Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). In a message posted on the Institute’s website Mamdani has already promised hope to bring to life a buzz of activities, from internet discussions to printed materials, ranging from working papers to workshops, journals to books, using methods from the unconventional to the orthodox, to create a market place of ideas, an arena of debate”. Mamdani argues that unlike a primary school that looks out for teachers who are trained from outside, universities and in this case Makerere should start training its own academics.
The problems of Makerere are well known. Apart from lack adequate financial support from government which has made the university to rely on private student’s fees contribution, the university has not yet gone out of its way to become an innovative centre of excellence. Makerere must wean itself from government and begin fending for her needs independently by getting multiple partnerships with multilateral international donors to fund its research especially in the scientific field. Before it does this however, it must considerably cut the number of students it admits to ensure quality. Baryamureeba and his entire team must understand its one thing to hoodwink the public through the media that a lot is being done and it is another to do actual wok that can propel the university to greater heights. Whereas every institution needs good public relations for its smooth running, a good press alone is not enough to turn an academic institution from a despised run down organization to a glorious internationally celebrated entity.
** The writer is a human rights defender
