Garden of Eden

Well there is progress being made at St. Ignatius! There has been an increase of inquiry of programs being offered and a good demand for Education pathways. We are diligently working on the development of the curriculum and seeking potential instructors for the next academic year for this new department. In addition, the university acquired additional land that was donated by the Diocese to expand the agriculture and tourism programs. On the land is a small structure that will be renovated to hold agriculture labs and supplemental student housing.

Here are some pictures of the additional land which lies about 15-minute walk away from the main campus.

During the week we are busy working to make sustainable change in Kabale and during the weekend I explore the beauty of Uganda and learn about agriculture and farming.

During this weekend, I visited Fr. Paulino Fokushaba home which lies in the Ruhija Forest, which is near the Impenetrable Forest of Uganda. You will see a couple of pictures of his home, pictures of monkeys as we drive through the Impenetrable Forest, and the villages during the drive.

 

During this weekend, I also visited Fr. Maximiano Ngabirano home in the village of Nyamasizi. His home contains a tea farm. I had the pleasure to touch his cows and sheep. Unfortunately, the goats were too afraid to let me near them. Maybe next time, I will learn to milk a cow. 

 

Uganda is a garden of Eden. It is rich in natural resources and needs assistance in developing their nation to become producers to build and increase their exports in order to provide opportunities and employment for the young.

Primary Education Curriculum

Wow! These past two months have flown by and so much has occurred. I have faced adversity, embraced the community experience, and learned much of the Ugandan way.

During these two months, we have made progress on the Primary Education curriculum for the Diploma and Bachelor's track programmes. The national policy is guiding the revamping of higher education institutional programs to embrace innovative measures and concepts in order to prepare current and aspiring teachers in K-12 education with improved professional practices to deliver high quality K-12 programmes. The current primary and secondary schools need to improve in order to inspire students to become more innovative thinkers and develop critical thinking skills for an improved country.

The progress that we are making on the completion of the curriculum will lead to the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) accreditation of these two programs at St. Ignatius University - Kabale. The desired submission date will be June 2024 with the hopes that accreditation will be received in order to accept applications in the Fall.  Then we will begin working on completing the Secondary Education curriculum for Bachelor of Arts and Science to be submitted for accreditation in the Fall.

I look forward to the acceptance of students into these programs as the demand does exist for St. Ignatius University - Kabale to implement the School of Education.

I will keep you informed of the NCHE accreditation process. 

Vice Chancellor Forum

I was selected to attend the Vice Chancellor Forum on behalf of Dr. Fr. Maximiano Ngabirano, Vice Chancellor of St. Ignatius University Kabale. The Forum was held in Entebbe, Uganda.

The two day forum, where every higher education institution in Uganda was invited, had about 50 attendees during the event. The first day began with a history of the forum and then went into details for improving higher education in Uganda based upon the National Development Policy that was signed in 2016. It also went into detail, by the leadership of National Council of Higher Education, of what has improved this past year and what must improve in the future. The big areas in need of improvement are undergraduate student enrollment, doctoral programs, types of programs that will improve the quality of life of Ugandians such as technology, engineering, neuroscience, natural energy, and most of all stop the brain drain by increasing wages. Another point of discussion was to develop student entrepreneurial skills to create businesses that can become mid-size to become producers for and by the Ugandan people and reduce the import of goods and services and increase employment.

The second day was focused on strategies of improving the quality of education from primary school to eventually improve the quality and caliber of students that enter higher education institutions. In order to do this task, grant writing at the national and local level is necessary. It is also necessary to form partnerships with international organizations to enhance higher education institutions and search for funding to support students and programs.

Many examples were shared by different universities of partnerships developed with businesses and international higher education institutions for program accreditation and faculty development.

I look forward to the good work that develops from the ideas generated during the forum.

Here is a picture of a few of the leaders of the Forum and National Council of Higher Education.

Iguka

The meaning of Iguka in the local language is Welcome.

Today we celebrated with faculty, staff and students the end of the first session of classes and a welcome to St. Ignatius University Kabale. The celebration created an opportunity for all attendees to get to know one another and grow in unity. A wonderful addition to this celebration, was that it was held on my birthday. Here a picture of most attendants.

 

The day began, at the St. Ignatius Chapel with mass, presided by Fr. Zeno. After mass, we walked to the main campus for an opportunity for every attendee to introduce themselves and share thoughts about their university experience thus far and what their future aspirations for themselves and of the university. You will find a picture of Fr. Zeno and attendees in front of the chapel. 

 

I was able to learn a lot about Ugandan culture and the different tribes during the event. I was also able to know how sometimes you can recognize people from the different tribes due to their features, how they dance and the villages that they are from.

I hope this will be the first of many celebrations to come of the launch of St. Ignatius University Kabale!

One Month In Uganda

I can't believe it has been a month, since I entered Uganda! So much has been accomplished, experienced, and learned in such a short time. God is good all the time!

I have met all the administrative staff, but now it's time to meet the academic staff, establish mechanisms for quality improvement, monitoring and evaluation. Much is to be done in this area.

Well, I met the instructors during our first academic staff meeting!

During the meeting we were able to share the mission and vision of the university, the community challenges, and share ideas and thoughts of our next steps on establishing IGUKA.

Prior to the meeting, I was able to compile the data from student evaluations of their instructors and after analyzing the data identified the trends. I also administered a needs evaluation to the academic staff. I wonder what the data will reflect, when it is all collected.

After the meeting, we broke bread together. I look forward to our work together in establishing IGUKA!

The academic staff pose for a picture after the meeting.

 

Team: Academic Registrar and Quality Assurance Offer pose for a picture.

Things Moving Fast

Everything is moving quickly. I was provided many documents to review concerning the policies of the university while simultaneously researching the national accrediting governing bodies to gather information on quality assurance, higher education school of education requirements, standards of and indicators to receive full accreditations from theses bodies within Uganda. It is necessary and rewarding work but a bit challenging with the instability of the infrastructure in Kabale. However, we move on and forward.

 Now, I am more knowledgeable of Higher Education accrediting bodies requirements in Uganda. I have examined recent national policy changes to improve the quality of education at all levels and am confident that St. Ignatius University Kabale will be able to implement programs that are sustainable and will improve the surrounding community. 

 St. Ignatius is a young institution and there is work to be done for the revision of a few of their recently launched program structures, the development of programs, and the implementation of new programs. Two of the new programs are the Bachelor's of Arts or Science in Primary Education and Secondary Education. The establishment of Education Department is necessary with the new national policies and the rapidly increasing population. The need for professors that are innovative and are able to engage the community and business partners are a necessary resource that is scarce in Kabale.

So, if you have a Doctorate in any academic field, especially in education, information technology, sciences or agriculture, consider missionary work in Kabale, Uganda. It's a calling that we hope you answer.

 I did have the time, on the weekend, to travel to other parts of Uganda. The landscape is beautiful. I visited the hometown of the Vice Chancellor, Fr. Dr. Ngabirano, where his parents still reside. Alongside of the home are many acres of produce, especially green tea. It is a beautiful area. Unfortunately, for me I left my cell. I do hope to visit again this time with my camera. 

Lake Victoria

 

Lake Victoria is a beautiful lake and is the largest lake in the continent of Africa and the third largest in the world. The lake has three different islands; one mainly consists of a luxury resort, another is inhabited by mainly one family but there are other homes there, and one is uninhabited. During the boat tour the guide provided the history of Lake Victoria, due to technical difficulties, only some of his comments were captured.

There is beautiful scenery of the lake and the islands captured on the pictures and videos.