Makerere University Launches Ambitious 2025-2030 Strategic Plan as Finance Minister Pledges Support

KAMPALA – Makerere University has officially unveiled its Strategic Plan for 2025–2030, a high-stakes blueprint aimed at accelerating its transition into a world-class, research-intensive institution. The launch was presided over by the newly elevated Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development, Henry Musasizi, who committed state backing to the roadmap but threw down a gauntlet on financial discipline.

The five-year strategic plan, themed “Building for the Future: Transforming Lives,” focuses on academic excellence, impactful research, global competitiveness, inclusive growth, and institutional accountability. The framework directly aligns with Uganda’s National Development Plan IV and the overarching Vision 2040 national agenda.

The Numbers Behind the Pivot

Vice-Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe characterized the plan as a critical milestone in Makerere’s institutional evolution. He revealed that while the university will maintain its undergraduate admission caps, it will aggressively pivot resources toward graduate training and local innovation to solve national economic bottlenecks.

The university has set highly ambitious targets to benchmark its success by 2030:

* Postgraduate Expansion: Doubling the number of graduate students from 3,874 to 7,744.
* STEM Surge: Pushing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics enrolment from 30% to 55%.
* Employability: Aiming to lift the graduate employability rate from a bleak 33% to 65% within two years of graduation.
* Academic Output: Raising on-time PhD completion rates from 10% to 35%, while doubling annual peer-reviewed journal publications from 1,365 to 3,000.

To fuel this transformation, Makerere projects its required annual government funding to scale dramatically from Shs 380.08 billion in the current financial year to Shs 639.98 billion by FY 2029/30.

Finance Minister Demands Anti-Graft Alignment

In his address, Finance Minister Henry Musasizi—making one of his first prominent public appearances since assuming the full Cabinet portfolio—pledged continued state support via the Research and Innovations Fund. However, he tied the cash flow to strict transparency.

> “I want Makerere University to maintain integrity and support the President’s mission in this term of Kisanja No More Sleep and Kisanja No More Corruption,” Musasizi warned, according to launch materials.

The minister, who recently delivered a national budget projecting a 10.2% economic growth rate, demanded absolute ethical standards from the university leadership. He pushed the administration to aggressively commercialize its innovation hubs, like the Unipod, and diversify its funding sources rather than leaning entirely on the state coffers.

The call for structural change was echoed by University Council Chairperson, Dr. Lorna Magara, who used the platform to urge Parliament to reform Uganda’s outdated higher education laws. Magara warned that oversized, rigid governance structures under the current Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act are actively hamstringing institutional agility and resource management.

The Watchdog Perspective

While the grand launch sets a visionary tone for Uganda’s premier university, the road ahead is littered with historical friction. This trillion-shilling roadmap unfolds at a time when Makerere is continually plagued by budget cuts, strikes over tuition policies, low graduate market readiness, and deep-seated governance bottlenecks.

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