Hello Jackson, Tom and colleagues, With regard to the location of the UWN, i notice two schools of though namely; either to set up the University in already existing institutions/structures or to open an entirely new ground for it. Rather than delve into the merits or demerits of either option, which they surely have, let me share with you a small experience.
While in a management meeting at MUBS in 2006, the idea of setting up study centers upcountry to ease the burden for students was mooted and adopted. Mbarara and Jinja districts were proposed and accepted. I was tasked with the responsibility of setting up the Study Centers in both Mbarara and Jinja. In a subsequent review meeting, i questioned the rationale of opening the centers in Jinja and Mbarara, towns which are more accessible to MUBS than in a location like Arua where distance and of course the poverty levels were/are major constraints. Anyway, i presented my case and mgt agreed that we need a center in Arua as well, a task that was again assigned to me which i gladly executed. We started with about 30 students in 2006 and today the center has close to 200 students at different levels, so much so that lecture rooms have become inadequate. i would therefore like to suggest a middle ground. The UWN can be started in an existing institution for two reasons; first, time is not on our side hence the university ought to kick off asap and yet construction of a new site will take a while; secondly we will avoid/or reduce the high initial establishment costs. However, a new site for the university should concurrently be identified for development in the medium to long term. If well managed, the resources from the temporary, set up campus can be used to feed into development of the new structure. We could also consider setting up campuses of the university in areas based on their resources e.g Faculty of Agric in Logiri/Zombo area. I normally prefer to be precise, so i trust that u can excuse the verbose for this one. Ezaga On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 4:49 PM, JohnAJackson <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear all, > > Thanks to the Task Force on University for moving this agenda forward. > While they continue with this noble pursuit, they should seroiusly consider: > > a) Starting a fuculty in one of the existing institutions because > facilities already exist. Whichever institution they pick, they should > consult with local govt authorities, school administrators and Ministry of > Education. It's a lot easier to open a University in existing school than > openin a new ground. > > b) The university can expand fuculties to the new donated land at Bidibidi > as resources become more available. Starting a university in a new virgin > land with no buildings will consume a lot of time, 2-5 years easily with > nothing tangible being done. Developing infrastructure from zero considering > all variable factors should concern all of us. Fund raising for a new > university is a lot of work, needs dedicated team of volunteers, experts, > etc > > c) It's cheaper and faster to turn the existing colleges into universities. > What is needed most is the money & staff. Most universities start this way > even in the developed countries. > > c) Electricity is vital for developing small scale industries in our region > that seriously suffer from high rate of unemployment. I would encourage > people on the ground to form another commitee or Task Force for electricity. > Without stable power supply, West Nile region will never attract any > industrial development. Big corporations locate to an area because of (i) > cheap power supply, (ii) low taxes, (iii) labor supply, (iv) good road > network, (v) availability of natural resources. West Nile region is nearly > deficient in almost all of these factors. > > d) *Other Infrastructure Projects* We need to form strong commitees or > Task Forces to follow up on other infrastructure projects. > Good commitees can follow up on different projects or programs > simultaneously. What we need is GOOD WILL & dedicated people. > Nothing can be done unless we are willing to sacrifice a little bit of our > time to work on any of these committees. > > JJAvudria > > > > On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 4:00 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Send WestNileNet mailing list submissions to >> [email protected] >> >> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >> http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet >> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >> [email protected] >> >> You can reach the person managing the list at >> [email protected] >> >> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >> than "Re: Contents of WestNileNet digest..." >> >> >> Today's Topics: >> >> 1. UWN and Where should it be Located (aliti candia) >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Message: 1 >> Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:35:15 -0700 (PDT) >> From: aliti candia <[email protected]> >> Subject: [WestNileNet] UWN and Where should it be Located >> To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]> >> Message-ID: <[email protected]> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> Hi Ma dear colleagues, >> >> I would like to contribute on the issue of location of U -OWN. (University >> of West Nile). I wish to thank Maandera and sunday for their brilliant >> contributions on this topic. >> Many important and sometimes unique factors have to be considered when >> deciding on location of a university. Students are attracted to a university >> becuase of different reasons including personal satisfaction and location. A >> good location for a new public university is almost as important as having a >> good idea in the first place. We should be prepared to make intelligent >> compromises in relation to the issue of location of U -OWN. The decisions >> should be objective taking into account that; the location should be able to >> gain a competitive advantage over any competition. Gaining a competitive >> advantage is vital to achieve an edge over competition with other >> private universities in the region. >> I believe most if not all students of the proposed U-OWN will initially >> start by leaving off campus . Location is therefore of indispensable >> importance and must play its role in the process of decision. Availability >> of services such as banking,night clubs,sports,accomodation or potential >> accomodation ETC are key to attracting students. Finally a large number of >> people and or a vibrant community around the university plays a >> satifaction role for the students and the entire university staff. >> I suggest objectively that Arua 'Regional City' is the ideal location to >> start small and eventaully expand our treasured U -OWN.There is a point at >> which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of >> choice, because all the committee have staked will be lost if they look >> back on the ideal choice of location .We are also politicians so to say the >> politicians have to take the final decision is not correct becuase we are >> politicians too as voters. >> But note the Dutch Proverb that ; 'HE WHO HAS A CHOICE HAS TROUBLE'. >> >> Tom Aliti >> >> >> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> http://orion.kym.net/pipermail/westnilenet/attachments/20100618/a92d1d9a/attachment-0001.html >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WestNileNet mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet >> >> >> End of WestNileNet Digest, Vol 22, Issue 51 >> ******************************************* >> > > > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > [email protected] > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > All Archives can be found at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). 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