A Case Study of Makerere University in Uganda
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32674/7k8sdv89Keywords:
international higher education, Makerere University, Morrill Act, Uganda, U.S. land-grant higher educationAbstract
Higher education in sub-Saharan Africa plays a critical role in meeting local and regional challenges yet still reaches a very small subset of the population. This case study focuses on Makerere University, the flagship university of Uganda, which is striving to make a difference locally and globally. It has survived colonialism, dictatorships, and economic disaster and has become one of the leading universities in Africa. Using the conceptual framework of U.S. land-grant higher education, this study seeks to analyze Makerere across the land-grant domains, focusing on tensions, facilitators, and barriers. The study consisted of interviews representing a diversity of stakeholders, field observation, and numerous documents and articles. Six major themes emerged including Makerere’s aspiration to be a research-led institution, the impact of neoliberalism, challenges in undergraduate education, the importance of reputation and saga, the role of the Ugandan government, and the continuing effects of colonialism. These findings are discussed in relationship to the land-grant domains, and conclusions are shared.
La formation universitaire en Afrique subsaharienne joue un rôle essentiel pour relever les défis locaux et régionaux, mais ne touche encore qu’un très petit sous-ensemble de la population. Cette étude de cas se concentre sur l’Université de Makerere, l’université phare de l’Ouganda, qui s’efforce de faire la différence localement et mondialement. Elle a survécu au colonialisme, aux dictatures et au désastre économique et est devenue l’une des principales universités d’Afrique. À l’aide du cadre conceptuel de Land Grant Higher Education aux États-Unis, cette étude cherche à analyser Makerere à travers des Land-Grant domaines, en se concentrant sur les tensions, les facilitateurs et les obstacles. L’étude a consisté en des entretiens représentant une diversité d’acteurs, des observations de terrain et de nombreux documents et articles. Six thèmes majeurs ont émergé, notamment l’aspiration de Makerere à être une institution axée sur la recherche, l’impact du néolibéralisme, les défis d’étude de premier cycle, l’importance de la réputation et de la saga, le rôle du gouvernement ougandais et les effets persistants du colonialisme. Ces résultats sont discutés en relation avec les Land-Grant domaines, et les conclusions sont partagées.
References
Bekele, T. A. & Ofoyuru, D. T. (2021). Emerging university-society engagements in Africa: An analysis of strategic plans. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 13(1), 151-180. https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v13i1.1690
Berman, E. P. (2012). Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine. Princeton University Press.
Bisaso, R. (2013). Academic capitalism in the responsiveness of science academic units at Makerere University. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 5(Summer), 47-59. https://www.ojed.org/index.php/jcihe/article/view/836
Bisaso, R. (2017). Makerere University as a flagship institution: Sustaining the quest for relevance. In D. Teferra (Ed.), Flagship Universities in Africa (pp. 425-466). Palgrave Macmillan.
Bound, J., Braga, B., Khanna, G., & Turner, S. (2019). Public Universities: The supply side of building a skilled workforce. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 5(5), 43–66. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2019.5.5.03
Carayannis, E.G., Campbell, D.F.J. & Rehman, S.S. (2016). Mode 3 knowledge production: systems and systems theory, clusters and networks. J Innov Entrep 5, 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-016-0045-9
Civis. (n.d.) Makerere University. https://civis.eu/en/discover-civis/the-civis-alliance/makerere-university.
Clark, B. R. (1972). The Organizational saga in higher education. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(2), 178-184. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393952
Clark, B. R. (2004). Delineating the character of the entrepreneurial university. Higher education policy, 17(4), 355-370. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300062
Cloete, N., & Bunting, I. (2018). Research Universities in Africa. African Books Collective.
Cloete, N. & Maassen, P. (2015). In N. Cloete, P. Maassen, & T. Bailey (Eds). Knowledge Production & Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education (pp. 1-17). African Minds.
Collins, C. (2011). Higher Education and Global Poverty: University Partnerships and the World Bank in Developing Countries. Cambria Press.
Court, D. (1999). Financing higher education in Africa: Makerere, the quiet revolution (English). Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/759471468760210734/Financing-higher-education-in-Africa-Makerere-the-quiet-revolution.
Creswell, J.W. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (Fifth Edition). Sage.
Crow, M.M. & Debars, W.B. (2012). University-based R&D and economic development: The Morrill Act and the emergence of the American research university. In D.M. Fogel & E. Malson-Huddle, Precipice or Crossroads? Where America’s Great Public Universities Stand and Where They are Going Midway through Their Second Century, (pp. 221-240). State University of New York Press.
Darvas, P., Gao, S., Shen, Y., & Bawany, B. (2017). Sharing higher education’s promise beyond the few in Sub-Saharan Africa (English). Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/862691509089826066/Sharing-higher-education-s-promise-beyond-the-few-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa.
Duderstadt, J.J. (2012). Creating the future: The promise of public research universities for America. In D.M. Fogel & E. Malson-Huddle, Precipice or Crossroads? Where America’s Great Public Universities Stand and Where They are Going Midway through Their Second Century, (pp. 221-240). State University of New York Press.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2011). Case Study. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (4th ed., pp. 301-316). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Furco, A. & Kent, K. (2021). The Multiversity Revisited: The Quest for Institutional Identity in an Era of Rapid Change. In A. Furco, R.H. Bruininks, R.J. Jones, & K. Kent, Re-envisioning the Public Research University: Navigating Competing Demands in an Era of Rapid Change, Routledge.
Gavazzi, S. M. & Gee, E.G. (2018). Land-Grant Universities for the Future: Higher Education for the Public Good. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Higgs, P. (2012). African philosophy and the decolonisation of education in Africa: Some critical reflections. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44 (S2), 37-55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2011.00794
Hudzik, J.K. & Simon, L.K. (2012). From a land-grant to a world-grant ideal: Extending public higher education core values to a global frame. In D.M. Fogel & E. Malson-Huddle, Precipice or Crossroads? Where America’s Great Public Universities Stand And Where They are Going Midway through Their Second Century, (pp. 159-196). State University of New York Press.
Jacob, W.J., Nsubuga, Y.K., & Mugimu, C.B. (2009) Higher education in Uganda: The role of community colleges in educational delivery and reform. In R.L. Raby & E.J. Valeau (Eds.), Community College Models. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9477-4_19
Johnson, A. T., & Mbah, M. F. (2021). (Un)Subjugating Indigenous knowledge for sustainable development: Considerations for community-based research in African higher education. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 13(Summer), 43-64. https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v13iSummer.3707
Leys, C. (2018). The African University, Letter to the Editor, London Review of Books, 40(15). 2 August 2018. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n15/letters.
Makerere University. (n.d.) Strategic Plan 2020-2030. https://www.mak.ac.ug/sites/default/files/downloads/Makerere-University-Strategic-Plan-2020-2030.pdf.
Mamdani, M. (2007). Scholars in the Marketplace: The Dilemmas of Neo-Liberal Reform at Makerere University, 1989-2005. Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA).
Marginson, S. (2016). The Dream is Over: The Crisis of Clark Kerr’s California Idea of Higher Education. University of California Press.
Meredith, M. (2011). The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent since Independence. Public Affairs.
Nash, M. (2019). Entangled pasts: Land-grant colleges and American Indian dispossession. History of Education Quarterly, 59(4), 437-467. https://doi.org/10.1017/heq.2019.31
National Institute of Food and Agriculture. (2020). NIFA land-grant colleges and universities. https://nifa.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource/LGU-Map-03-18-19.pdf.
Nawangwe, B., Muwagga, A.M., Buyinza, M., & Masagazi, F.M. (2021). Reflections on University Education in Uganda and the COVID-19 Pandemic Shock: Responses and Lessons Learned. Alliance for African Partnership Perspectives 1, 17-25. https://doi.org/10.1353/aap.2021.0002
Petit, E. (2024). Gordon Gee’s Last Stand. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/gordon-gees-last-stand.
Saldaña, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage Publishers.
Sicherman, C. (2005). Becoming an African University: Makerere 1922-2000. Africa World Press.
Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2009). Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, States, and Higher Education. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Sorber, N.M. & Geiger R.L. (2014) The welding of opposite views: Land-grant historiography at 150 years. In M. Paulsen (Ed.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research (pp. 385-422). Springer.
Sorber, N.M. (2018). Land-Grant Colleges and Popular Revolt: The Origins of the Morrill Act and the Reform of Higher Education. Cornell University Press.
Svruluga, S. & Anderson, N. (2023) WVU approves cuts in academic programs. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/15/west-virginia-board-approves-academic-cuts/.
Teferra, D. (2020, February 13). Higher education and the SDGs: More of the same? University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200213061657441.
The Visitation Committee on Makerere University, 2016. (2017, August). Report: Bringing the Future to the Present.
Trow, M. (2007). Reflections on the transition from elite to mass to universal access: Forms and phases of higher education in modern societies since WWII. In J.J.F. Forest & P. G. Altbach (Eds.), International Handbook of Higher Education (pp. 243-280). Springer.
World Bank. (2000). Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise. World Bank Publications. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/345111467989458740/pdf/multi-page.pdf.
World Bank. (2024). World Bank Data. https://data.worldbak.org/indicator.Yin, R.K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods. Sage.
Yin, R.K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The findings, interpretations, conclusions, and views expressed in Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education (JCIHE) are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to CIES, HESIG, or the sponsoring universities of the Editorial Staff. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. Readers are free to copy, display, and distribute articles that appear in JCIHE as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and JCIHE, it is distributed for non-commercial purposes only, and no alteration or transformation is made in the work. All other uses must be approved by the author(s) or JCIHE. By submitting a manuscript, authors agree to transfer without charge the following rights to JCIHE upon acceptance of the manuscript: first worldwide serial publication rights and the right for JCIHE to grant permissions as its editors judge appropriate for the redistribution of the article, its abstract, and metadata associated with the article in professional indexing and reference services.
