At a Glance
Strategic Plan
Busitema University was established as a Public University under the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act 2001 Instrument No. 22 of 2007. This followed the accreditation of the University and its initial academic programs by National Council for Higher Education in February 2007
The University Strategy
A centre of academic and professional excellence in science, technology and innovation”. The vision sets out the University’s strategy for rethinking and repositioning itself to meet the demands of teaching and learning; research and knowledge transfer.
“To provide inclusive high standard Training, quality research and outreach for industrialization and sustainable development”.
In fulfilment of the Vision and Mission, the Motto is “Pursuing Excellence"
Respect: BU undertakes to promote mutual respect, courtesy, and inclusiveness
Professionalism: At all times we being reliable and predictably consistent, and committed to honor moral, ethical, spiritual and artistic values and principles
Customer First: Superior customer satisfaction is our ultimate goal
Innovativeness: The University applies solutions that meet new requirements and articulate the market/community needs
Integrity: We treat our customers, our partners and employees with respect they deserve and are accountable for all our actions
Situation Analysis
The importance of Higher Education is explicitly stipulated in Target 4.3 in SDG 4 in promoting quality tertiary education for all including universities. It further supported by African Union Agenda 2063 with a focus promoting prosperous Africa, based on Inclusive growth and sustainable development. The Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA) 2024 with a focus on Innovation and entrepreneurship; enabling environment; infrastructure development and technical competences. African Higher education systems are at varying degrees of development both in terms of their capacity to respond to the increasing demand for higher education due to the youth bulge and the quality and relevance of their programs. The impact of globalization has brought about winds of change in all human development spheres including education. Trends are occurring in education in both developed and developing nations, at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels, as well as in adult education regardless of whether the education is public or private, on every continent of the world.
The trends are: technology use and integration which not only enhance education, but also continue to drive learning of all kinds; expansion of mobile technology which makes opportunities for learning to exist everywhere and all the time; increased creativity where knowledge is both created and co-created, not simply “imparted” by teachers - students do not just take in facts, they create new knowledge; global approaches to learning characterised by shared interests, curiosity and a hunger for learning are driving us to reach beyond our own borders; global mobility where teachers and students experience the world, more often, starting from a younger age and finally borderless education where the barrier of geography is being transcended by technology, creativity and a desire to “go global”.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized mainly by cyber physical systems, digital, and biological worlds has also changed the higher education land scape. The fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies requires higher education training to produce graduates with skills of: 1) Complex Problem Solving 2) Critical Thinking 3) Creativity 4) People Management 5) Coordinating with Others 6) Emotional Intelligence 7) Judgment and Decision Making 8) Service Orientation 9) Negotiation and 10) Cognitive Flexibility.
Despite the above trends, education continues to suffer from the magnitude of the financial burden to expand access and improve quality at the same time is such that very few countries in Africa can afford to go it alone. These challenges call for inter-country, sub-regional and global cooperation in Higher Education with the view to promote recognition of studies, certificates, diplomas, degrees and mobility of students and faculty. In so doing, the strategy seeks to create major systemic changes in the structure and content of higher education so that it can help countries develop common strategic frameworks for addressing common and pressing developmental issues.
Uganda Vision 2040 provides development footpaths and strategies to operationalize Uganda’s Vision statement which is “A Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country within 30 years” as approved by Cabinet in 2007. It aims at transforming Uganda from a predominantly peasant and low-income country to a competitive upper middle-income country. The Vision 2040 is conceptualized around strengthening the fundamentals of the economy to harness the abundant opportunities around the country. The identified opportunities include: oil and gas, tourism, minerals, ICT business, abundant labour force, geographical location and trade, water resources, industrialization, and agriculture among others that are to date considerably under exploited. Achieving the transformational goal will thus depend on the country’s capacity to strengthen the fundamentals including: infrastructure (energy, transport, water, oil and gas, and ICT); Science, Technology, Engineering and Innovation (STEI); land use and management; urbanisation; human resource; and peace, security and defense. Education remains the only fundamental and sustainable intervention of building Uganda’s human resource capacity required to harness the abundant opportunities around the country and achieve the transformational goal of “A Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country within 30 years”. Accelerating government reforms in the education system and the curriculum to obtain a globally competitive human resource with skills relevant to the development paradigm is underpinned as one of the key strategies and policy reforms to achieve Uganda’s Vision 2030.
The NPIII goal is “increased household incomes and improved quality of life”, and industrialization as main vehicle for achieving this goal. Five broad objectives are proposed as framework in which this goal is to be achieved and these are: a) Enhance value addition in Key Growth Opportunities (Agriculture, Tourism, Minerals, Oil and Gas and Knowledge) b) Strengthening the private sector to drive growth and create jobs c) Increasing stock and quality of productive infrastructure d) Increasing productivity, inclusiveness and wellbeing of population and e) Strengthening the role of the public sector in growth and development process.
To achieve the five objectives effectively and efficiently, the NDPIII identified several development strategies and the include; 1) Maintaining Peace, Security and Good Governance 2) Maintaining stable macroeconomic environment as an anchor for economic growth and development 3) Reducing the cost of doing business to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and enhance competitiveness of domestically produced goods and services, both at local and international markets 4) Import Replacement and Export Promotion Strategy 5) Commercialization of agriculture 6) Harnessing the Tourism potential 6) Promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering, Innovation (STEI) and a Knowledge driven economy 7) Mineral Beneficiation and Oil refining 8) Revisiting the role of the Government in strategic areas of the economy 9) Promotion of Private Sector Investment (Domestic Investment and Foreign Direct Investment) 10) Mindset change to promote citizens’ focus on development 11) Exploiting opportunities of Urbanization to drive growth 12) Improving the wellbeing and productivity of the population by improving the quality of education and health service delivery; reforming vocational education; and increasing social protection through initiatives like health insurance schemes 13) Increasing Domestic Revenue Mobilization 14) Promotion of Social Services based on the Parish Model and 15) Climate change adaptation and environmental management.
Uganda’s Education and Sports Sector has grown over the past three decades under the leadership of the NRM Government. The Education and Sports sector is responsible for the delivery of equitable, relevant and quality education, training and sports services for all. The sector comprises of seven sub-sectors namely: (i) Pre-Primary and Primary Education (ii) Secondary Education (iii) Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) (iv) Teacher Instructor Education and Training (v) Higher Education and (vii) Physical Education and Sports. The key stakeholders include Government, Private Sector, CSOs and Development Partners. The Government, through the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports, relevant Line Ministries and Local Governments, sets the standards, provides technical guidance, supports, coordinates, monitors and evaluates policies and regulates the sector players. Other public institutions in regulation, standard setting and delivery of education services include; the National Council for Higher Education, National Council of Sports, National Council for Science and Technology, National Curriculum Development Centre, Education Service Commission, National Examination Bodies, Directorate of Education Standards, Professional Institutions and public education, training and research institutions, Private sector and CSOs.
The issues of Gender, HIV, Environment and population issues affects the overall socio-economic status, demographic and ecological growth milestones of any society. In recognition of this truth, the government has prioritized these core components in the Vision 2040, NDPII and further cascading them to all units of government, of particular interest the Public Finance and Management Act, 2015 section 11(e) states that a certificate will be issued by the Minister responsible for Finance in consultation with the Equal Opportunities Commission certifying (i) that the budget is gender and equity responsive (ii) specifying the measures taken to equalize opportunities for men, women, persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups.
The University will focus on addressing Gender, HIV, Environment and Population as detailed in the strategies and action matrix through;
- Mainstreaming Curricula to address HIV/AIDS, environment and other crosscutting issues for student both formal and informal
- Implement the university policy of affirmative action of admitting 50% 50% by gender where applicable
- Support students Gender and HIV clubs across campuses
- Implement the sexual harassment and gender policies
- Establish a production center at Arapai campus and support the youth in value addition projects in areas of agriculture
- Establish centers of excellence per campus (Energy and Materials Institute (FoE), Institute of Space Science (FSE), Soil Institute (FAA), Climate Change and Governance Institute (FNRE), Tourism and Hospitality Institute (FMS) ,and Maternal and Pediatrics Institute (FHS)
- Review our taught programmes, looking to new markets and opportunities for growth in the online environment to promote access to our programs
- Support Technology Business Incubation and Innovation Center (TBIIC) to support skilling programs
- Fast-track the ongoing partnerships BU - Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development 4MW solar energy power project; Busitema- Hansom Eastern Investment Co. Ltd truck assembly plant
- Ginnery Commercialized
The key strategic ICT challenges facing the University in the next five years include the rising need to integrate ICT services in the core functions of the University; the provision of high speed internet across all the campuses to support open and distance learning (ODL), e-learning; provision of user-friendly and easily accessible web services; implementation of tight information security control for the existing and future ICT infrastructure; ensuring quality services through ICT technical support; provision of cost effective ICT environment in the era of increasing cost of software and the ever changing technologies. To address this, the University will invest in ICT in order to aid the integration and transformation process for business continuity. The University has developed the ICT strategic plan to ensure that the ICT issues are well addressed.
Strategic Framework
We will further improve our students’ experience, with an emphasis on partnership working and personalizing learning, to make sure we attract talented students and that our graduates are highly employable.
Strategies and Actions
1. Expand pedagogical approaches to engage students in their learning
- Transform the scheduling of classes to effectively meet new pedagogical approaches, including service and experiential learning
- Ask our students for feedback on their educational experience, and respond and act on it
- Strengthen the Quality Assurance Office
- Achieve and maintain relevant ISO certifications for some programs and facilities
- Establish centers of excellence to support students learning
- Review and adjust our portfolio of taught programmes to make sure they are high-quality, relevant and attractive to students and employers
- Review our taught programmes, looking to new markets and opportunities for growth in the online environment.
- Focus on competitive recruitment and admission to improve on the quality of the students who apply to us
2. Personalize students’ learning experiences
- Promote, support and provide the necessary resources for small-group and collaborative teaching (Project based learning, problem based, team teaching, area/topic cluster courses and case based etc)
- Develop specific strategies to improve retention of graduate students and ensure timely completion of degrees
- Provide all students with regular focused feedback on their progress and attainment
- Expand the utilization of technology applications to enhance learning opportunities (Operationalizing the open Access and ODL policies)
3. Recruit and develop high quality faculty staff
- Recruit more teaching staff mainly at senior level
- Use feedback on teaching to recognize and support excellent lecturers
- Regular assessment of the quality programmes
- Support staff to reach their full potential through professional development
- Increase inter-professional collaboration in curriculum implementation
4. Provide students with opportunities to develop their skills, qualities, knowledge and experience to prepare them for high-value employment
- Create more work experience, placement and internship opportunities for students locally, nationally and internationally
- Facilitate curricula that highlight student agency and learning outside of formal class structures
- Target appropriate financial aid to support economically disadvantaged students
- Ensure effective organization/structuring of curriculum and academic policies to promote ease in transferring to and from other institutions.
- Engage employers in the development, implementation and evaluation of training programmes
- Provide opportunities for all students to improve their knowledge and skills in research, leadership and sustainability across a wide range of fields
- Provide expert careers guidance and develop employability skills
5. Support students to take part in wider University life and other communities
- Work with the Students’ Union to provide a range of social, sporting, arts, cultural and other activities and environments
- Promote students participation in inter and intra university activities
- Support and encourage students to volunteer and participate in communities
- Mainstream gender, HIV/AIDS, environment and other crosscutting issues in student formal and informal curricula
6. Expand our capacity by investing in new infrastructure, facilities and technologies
- Transform infrastructure to support student centered learning, research and outreach
- Complete the master planning exercises for all the campuses.
- Pursue green strategies in order to enhance environmental sustainability
Our enterprise and innovation delivers scientific and economic impact – benefiting communities locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in the era of globalization. “BU will build its research around five themes – Industrialization; Digital Futures; Health and Wellbeing; agriculture and environment; sustainable Societies and Transformative Technologies.”
Strategies and Actions
1. Recruit and develop outstanding researchers at all career stages
- Invest in coordinated research leadership programmes at University
- Promote effective mentoring as a key component of the University research program
- Create more opportunities for undergraduates to work with leading researchers and integrate research in teaching activities as part of their taught Recognize and reward high level of research excellence.
2. Produce and effectively share high-quality research
- Strengthening the Directorate of Graduate Studies, Research and Innovation
- Increasing the number of graduate programmes and strengthening their relevance and quality
- Support Technology Business Incubation and Innovation Center to support skilling programs
- Encourage and support our researchers to develop purposeful international and industrial collaborations with the potential to improve on the quality, relevancy and impact
- Develop entrepreneurial capacity of the University staff and students
3. Adopt a 'systems approach' to managing research
- Emphasize experiential undergraduate and graduate learning, and research through integrative services, programs, and courses
- Improve the way we market our research to increase our visibility and impact by making the most use of the Internet, advertising our research in all forms of media and at conferences and through targeted events.
- Invest in University-wide systems and processes to develop proposals, gain funding, manage research activities and partnerships, develop research impact and nurture research excellence across our University.
- Update institutional repository to cater for research output of BU
- Increase the effect of research and innovation through the NPDIII strategic areas to develop a smart and inclusive economy
The University enhance public engagement, knowledge exchange and innovation culture. BU, we aim at ensuring that our research and education benefit wider publics in the region, across the country and globally. To this end we will work in partnership with public, private, voluntary and commercial organizations, and our alumni.
Strategies and Actions
1. Strengthen and increase the number of local, national and international research partnerships
- Identify and develop partnerships with stakeholders who have interest in our research agenda
- Establish the Office of Advancement of Teaching and Learning
- Develop guidelines to streamline our outreach and engagement activities
- Aspire to lead local environmental sustainability initiatives and communicate those efforts to internal and external constituents.
- Develop guidelines to customize the Public Private Partnership Act, 2015.
2. Develop and increase commercial partnerships to make the most of our intellectual property, establish joint ventures and support local businesses
- Increase funding for translational research targeted at generating commercial products
- Promote commercial use of research facilities, equipment and products for the benefit of the University.
- Develop partnerships and linkages with industry for cost effective commercialization of research products and innovation.
3. Develop strong local and global networks of alumni
- Draw on the influence and skills of our alumni to support education and research
- Identify, map and track our alumni more effectively
- To partner with alumni in development and implementation of University strategic plan
4. Implement the marketing and communication strategy
- Evaluate and refine Marketing and Communication Strategy to ensure effectiveness.
- Leveraging resources in the implementation of Marketing and Communication Strategy
Effective Organisational design and governance is vital. We need to know that we have the right leadership, decision-making processes and local accountability in place to deliver this strategy.
Strategies and Actions
1. Increase funding to accomplish University’s mission
- Develop and implement University Revenue Enhancement Policy
- Operationalize and strengthen the Busitema University Fund Company
- Commercialize key University undertakings
2. Provide outstanding Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services
- Digitization of learning and support environments
- Upgrade both physical and virtual environments of the library.
- Improve overall ICT security and specification of standards through implementation of ICT policy
- Develop an enhanced and more cost-effective computing environment.
- Develop harmonized data bases to capture the core University information
3. Strengthen Governance structures and procedures in the University
- Strengthen staff accountability and productivity
- Offer the staff opportunities for career advancement as part of the reorganization of administration and support services
- Develop equitable and transparent means of allocating resources
- Ensure that the job-related objectives of each member of the University community are linked to the University’s objectives
- Develop a more comprehensive rewards and recognition program to celebrate faculty and staff accomplishments.
- Establish open procedures for settling grievances and disputes.
- Maintaining meritorious staff promotion, recruitment and development
4. Promote efficiency
- Identify and implement mandatory reporting requirements
- Identify and eliminate unnecessary and duplicate reports
- Establish procedure for risk management, business continuity and fraud.
- Integrate the University’s Strategic Plan targets into the performance management process (PMP)
- Continuous monitoring of compliance and reporting requirements to ensure good standing across many University functions and activities.
5. Developing a gender responsive staff
Action Steps
- Promoting gender equality, diversity and equity in staff recruitment and development
- Developing a staff profile at all occupational levels to ensure gender equity
- Zero tolerance to discrimination and harassment
- Creating a conducive and facilitative environment for staff and students, and those living with disabilities
The implementation of BU’s Strategic Plan will be in line with the current government of Uganda planning and budgeting cycle based on the Performance Budgeting System. During the second quarter of every year, the University will produce their respective work plans, which all together shall form the Operational Plan for the coming financial year. The operational plan will set out in detail how the University will implement or make progress towards implementing the Strategic Plan. For compliance, the annual Operational Plan will be approved by the Council of BU and Parliament.
Each program’s work plans shall be aligned to the key result areas herein contained, and structured to reflect the five strategic objectives in the Strategic Plan, showing inputs, outputs, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), target dates and accountability for delivery of each task. There will be a strategic lead person on each broader objective to ensure delivery by agreed timelines and drive and monitor achievement of the targets against Key Performance Indicators
The BU Top Management shall, at least on quarterly basis be responsible for following up and assessing the smooth running of the operational plans, and of ensuring compliance with this Strategic Plan in its entirety for the stipulated period (2020/21 – 2024/25). In this task, regular meetings and consultations will be conducted within the existing management levels to keep the implementation process on track and ensure that the overall goals remain in sight.
The Top Management shall review this Strategic Plan on an annual basis and, where appropriate, make any necessary recommendations for modifications to the Finance, Planning and Investment Committee of Council. Progress on both the strategic and operational Plans will be formally reported to Council annually.
The Council will be responsible for ratifying the Strategic Plan With this type of quarterly and bi-annual planning, monitoring and review meetings, BU will continually work toward closing the gap between current reality and the future vision. Thus, by 2025 BU will have made steady progress toward pursuing excellence.
Effective communication is critical for the Council to realize success of the planning work and its resulting outcomes. As part of reaching out to clients, stakeholders and the public, the BU management will develop plans for integrating the vision, mission, and values into University’s communications (e.g., website, newsletters, presentations, annual reports). Similarly, key components of the strategic plan will be incorporated into activities undertaken by all staff in their day-today work with clients, stakeholders and the public. Strong internal communication will be strengthened through office-based discussions; feedback reports and sharing information on the action planning process either electronically or otherwise across the University. This effort will only succeed if all parts of BU are aware of the effort, help share how we implement it, and are engaged in accomplishing our goals in this current time of both difficult challenges and great opportunity.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The goals and objectives of Busitema University (BU) are outlined in this strategic plan, which also provides a brief synopsis of the Organization's operational framework. It is predicated on an Annual planning cycle that is intended to assess objectives, targets, and performance indicators while accounting for advancements and modifications to the operational environment and assigning projects a budget-related priority. Furthermore, it makes the assumption that all Academic and administrative divisions of the university will have annual review and planning procedures that are appropriate for converting this high-level framework of vision, values, goals, and strategies into more targeted and focused plans and projects. Fortunately the paths taken by each of these plans may differ, taken as a whole, they will address the issues the Institution is facing and put it in a position to pursue excellence over the next two years.
Analyzing threats and challenges, both externally and internally, outweighs looking at opportunities and strengths. Risk will need to be reduced through the use of Management by objectives and critical path analysis when implementing work plans for the scheduled activities. As a result, in order to greatly improve performances, management should aggressively raise additional funding from outside sources and handle both internal and external threats.
The task of overseeing and assessing how the planned activities are being carried out falls within the purview of the Strategic Plan Implementation Committee (SPIC). At the conclusion of each fiscal year, the Committee will turn in yearly reports for monitoring and evaluation.
At the end of 2023, an internal mid-term evaluation of the Strategic Plan's implementation will be conducted in order to determine the degree to which the goals will have been met and to make any required adjustments.
The Strategic Plan Implementation Committee (SPIC) will oversee the yearly and quarterly re-planning process to meet targets (primary activities that are prioritized within the framework of all goals) and allocate funds and human resources to enhance outputs. The budgetary lines will be used to leverage additional strength and competence in order to generate more revenue and aggressively mobilize supplementary funds.
An evaluation of the Strategic Plan's implementation will be conducted at the terminal stage by an internal and external team.
Evaluate how far the strategic plan's goals and anticipated outcomes have come in terms of fulfillment.
Examine how far the University's planning and budgeting procedures have been guided by the strategic plan.
Provide recommendations for policy modifications that are necessary to allow the effective implementation of the strategic plan.
As programs are being carried out, delegate thorough control measures by assessing risks and challenges from both internal and external sources.
To help with the next strategic plan's drafting, as well.
There are serious risks facing the current that come from both internal and external sources. The main risks stem from the constantly shifting landscape of High Education brought about by changes in Technology and industry skill requirements.
Table below summarizes the risks and their mitigations.
