BY STEPHEN SENKAABA

MAKERERE University will get the first ever constituent college in Uganda when its College of Health Sciences (CHS) is officially launched on Friday.

The college becomes the pioneer institution in a new structure that seeks to devolve university operations and increase efficiency in both administrative and academic affairs.

According to the principal of the new college, Prof. Nelson Sewankambo, “This will give the institution an opportunity to grow, develop, expand and to better address the needs of Uganda’s public health.

Sewankambo says the establishment of this college will go a long way to improve not just academics but also managerial and administrative efficiency in a university that has expanded tremendously in size, student numbers and functions.

President Museveni is expected to officiate at the launch scheduled to take place at the medical school gardens in Mulago.

The CHS has evolved from the former faculty of medicine and school of public health which, until last year, constituted the Makerere University medical school.

It comprises four schools namely; School of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, School of Medicine and School of Health Sciences. CHS now takes on a new administrative structure headed by the principal, the deputy principal and four deans. Under the college, each school will have its own administrative structure.

Sewankambo says each school will take charge of their day-to-day academic and administrative functions but still remain answerable to the central university administration.

The CHS was established on December 1 2007 under the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act. The college evolved to a medicine faculty, and finally to a constituent College of Makerere University.

The college was started as a Faculty of Medicine in 1924. On January 5, 2008 it was reconstituted as a semi-autonomous unit within the university.