Messages from the Dean

Welcome to the website for the School of Languages, Literature and Communication, one of the five Schools that constitute the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Makerere University. The School has five Departments: Literature; Journalism and Communication; European and Oriental Languages; African Languages; and Linguistics, English Language Studies and Communication Skills. In addition, it has a specialised Centre for Languages and Communication Services which offers short courses in English and Communication Skills to Ugandan and foreign students, administers English proficiency tests, as well as document translation services in all major world languages. The School is currently laying new strategies geared towards initiating change and process re-engineering in all its activities. Over the next five years, the School will be focusing on five key strategic areas in order to transform itself into a centre of excellence for research and teaching of world languages, literatures, journalism, and communication studies. First, the School will focus on scaling up research projects and research uptake in all Departments. Attracting research grants has a knock-on effect on the ability of academics to generate new knowledge and to publish their findings; influence policy; improve the teaching and learning infrastructure at the university; secure scholarships for graduate training at MA, PhD and Post-Doctoral levels; support for academic exchange programmes, as well as outreach to communities. The second area of focus will be initiating local and international partnerships. Local partnerships with industry and alumni help to improve our teaching and learning environment, and they provide internship and job opportunities for our students, while external partnerships are vital in supporting collaborative research and academic exchange programmes with international universities and other agencies. The third area is improving service delivery in the School. Our focus here will be on avoiding undue delays when handling business from staff, students, and the public. Failure to attend to clients’ business promptly and give them feedback causes frustration and demotivates those that we serve. As a School, we shall desist from being a roadblocks to people’s aspirations. Good communication practices also require that we make information available to those that need it using all media at our disposal. In this age of information and communication technologies, sharing information has never been easier. In addition, we shall be revisiting our academic programmes and Initiating other innovations in the School. On this front, we will be working on reviewing our existing degree programmes and proposing new ones. Attracting undergraduate and graduate students should be as important to us as tracking their progress and ensuring that they complete their degree programmes in record time. This year, we also celebrate the launch of the Confucius Institute as one of our academic units that will focus on teaching Chinese to our students and the general public. We are grateful to the Chinese government for supporting Makerere University to open this institute which will offer students, staff and the public a chance to learn Chinese and explore new opportunities in China, the new and fastest growing global economy. Over the next couple of years, the School plans to launch a Writing Centre which will offer specialised writing services to students, staff and external clients. Finally, the School will continue to work towards improving staffing levels in Departments and initiating projects to promote staff welfare and improve their morale. There is nothing that a united, motivated and focused team can fail to achieve! We welcome you to partner with us to make this vision a reality.