Makerere University

Makerere University

The Main Administration block for Makerere University, normally called the Main Building
Motto	"We build for the future"
Type	Public
Established	1970; 54 years ago (1970)
Parent institution	Formerly the University of London and the University of East Africa
Chancellor	Ezra Suruma[1]
Vice-Chancellor	Barnabas Nawangwe[2][3]
Administrative staff	3,174 (2018)[4]
Students	35,000+ (2018)[5]
Location	Kampala , Uganda 00°20′06″N 32°34′03″E / 0.33500°N 32.56750°E / 0.33500; 32.56750
Campus	Urban, 300 acres
Website	www.mak.ac.ug
Location in Kampala

Makerere University (/məˈkɛrəri/;^[6] Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa.^[7] It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of nine colleges and one school offering programmes for about 36,000 undergraduates and 4,000 postgraduates. These colleges include College of Natural Sciences (CONAS), College of Health Sciences (CHS), College of Engineering Art & Design (CEDAT), College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies (CAES), College Of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS), College of Humanities & Social Sciences (CHUSS), College of Computing and Information Sciences (COCIS), College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources & Bio-security (COVAB), College of Education and External Studies (CEES) and Makerere University Business School (MUBS). In addition, Makerere has onother campus in Eastern Uganda Jinja City.

The main administrative block was gutted by fire in September 2020 and the cause of the fire is yet to be established.^[8] The building is being reconstructed.

Makerere University is the alma mater of many post-independence African leaders, including Ugandan president Milton Obote^[9] and Tanzanian presidents Julius Nyerere and Benjamin Mkapa.^[10] The former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, and former Kenyan president the late Mwai Kibaki are also Makerere alumni.

In the years immediately after Uganda's independence, Makerere University was a focal point for the literary activity that was central to African nationalist culture. Many prominent writers, including Nuruddin Farah, Ali Mazrui, David Rubadiri, Okello Oculi, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, John Ruganda, Paul Theroux, Nobel Prize laureate V. S. Naipaul, and Peter Nazareth, were at Makerere University at one point in their writing and academic careers.

Because of student unrest and faculty disenchantment, the university was closed three times between 2006 and 2016. The final time was on 1 November 2016 when President Yoweri Museveni declared it closed indefinitely.^[11] The university was reopened in January 2017.^[12]