Most people will not produce results unless there is a meaningful incentive. There are 2 parties involved in this equation-the government, which supplies funding and the students who supply the projects.
Let me give the example of how this works at the University of Waterloo, please dont bash me, it may not be practical in Uganda's situation but it illustrates the idea of incentives. The University of Waterloo has created a technology triangle where graduating engineering students have started up small profitable businesses from projects they submitted at the end of their course. Why is this possible? Government provides the funding and in turn becomes the incubator of these ideas and having a monetary stake in these new technologies through the university. The students are therefore extremely motivated to be creative and put in a lot of effort to ensure their project generates sufficient commercial viability. In essence, everyone benefits. The university gets the funding they need, the students get a chance to start a money making venture from a technology they love and the government gets a stake in the the businesses that are started. The students I studied with in Makerere 1997-2000 were among the brightest I knew(Mass Comm). Engineering students in Uganda by virtue of choosing such a technical subject must be bright and therefore given the right incentive would do a fabulous job of developing viable technologies or at least useful research. Results = Incentives Joyce ----- Original Message ----- From: Ezra Banoba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 13:48:55 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: lug_: Cellphone detector, cheap > On Thu, 2004-07-22 at 06:05, Begumisa Gerald M wrote: > <snip> > > I think that is a really good system - it takes into account one of the > > most important things in the field, as I've discovered - the ability to > > accurately estimate how long your project will take you. And, the ability > > to *deliver along the way* - yeah, it kinda gives the management some > > satisfaction that they are not "paying you for nothing". > > > > > Since the outcome of the project rarely goes beyond the report and > > > presentation, the skill we employers tend to be looking for is the > > > ability for the student to originate and idea but also manage the > > > time so as to deliver the project on time. > > > > I've come to learn this the hard way :-). > > Ideally that's what it should be but at Makerere, the difference between > the "REAL WORLD" and the "ACADEMIC WORLD" is so big and further widened > by the sylabii(which are, in my view, out of sync). Any effort to merge > the two, however slight, is usually disastrous. > > That is why most students usually resort to cramming the (sometimes > outdated) notes and pass the exam,get it over and done with other than > trying to study and at the end of the day, the grades are acquired but > neither the knowledge nor the discipline for development of ideas or > even bringing these ideas to life. That's why chances of finding a > typical product of Makerere University coming up with something like the > "Cellphone detecor" or anything thereof related is a "strange" > occurrace...you can most definately attribute such success to other > factors other than the 3 or 4 years spent in study at the legendary > institution. > > > > Maybe we need to make sure that students are not actually just > > > passing time at uni but have an interesting. Some kind of career > > > guidance might be helpful to motivate the students. > > > > For sure - many employers want you to start delivering in the shortest > > time possible - and not to take time learning how to deliver. > > Hehehehe, at least at the "institute", they are more interested in "how > you deliver" and not "you delivering", so at the end of the day, if you > are not careful, you are so good at telling stories (usually archaic) > about "how to deliver" yet actually never able to deliver. > > Sit through some of these project presentation sessions, some of the > questions asked are so dissapointing (in terms of relevance to assessing > the students ability) that you get several silly answers...but I guess > that's where the marks are:-) > > Regards. > > > > Gerald. > > > > > > --------------------------------------------- > > This service is hosted on the Infocom network > > http://www.infocom.co.ug > -- > Ezra Banoba > Network Engineer > one2net > www.one2net.co.ug > > "Doing well is a result of Doing good. That's what capitalism is all about." > > > > --------------------------------------------- > This service is hosted on the Infocom network > http://www.infocom.co.ug Joyce Kyeyune Master of Business, Entrepreneurship & Technology University of Waterloo 200 University Avenue N2L 3G1 Waterloo, Ontario Canada -- _____________________________________________________________ Web-based SMS services available at http://www.operamail.com. >From your mailbox to local or overseas cell phones. Powered by Outblaze --------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
