ICT-DRIVEN INSTITUTIONS WILL THRIVE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Dear Staff,

Institutions that embrace ICT,can look forward to a promising future.ICT
plays a central role in institutions of higher learning and Universities
can hardly survive without it.

The Use of ICT in Academia and Research has evolved from basic internet
connectivity and communication (email) to Integrating University
information systems (Finance,Research,Human Resource and Academics),ICT
enhanced learning (e-learning,m-learning,video conferencing etc),tele
medicine,Automation of University business processes etc.

In 2000,DICTS was created to offer ICT consultative and support services
to the Makerere University community.This was made possible through the
generous support of the Swedish International Development Agency
(SIDA),Norad and the World Bank through the government of Uganda.

Fifteen years ago,emphasis was placed on developing a holistic ICT policy
and Master plan that would guide ICT implementations across the University
as well as putting in place backbone network infrastructure and providing
communication services (email),websites to the Mak community and building
ICT capacity.

Achievements Fifteen years later;

1) Makerere has the largest and most sophisticated University networks in
Sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa.

2) Many Sub-Saharan Universities have bench-marked their ICT services
against the Mak ICT policy and Master plan.

3) Our Bandwidth has more than tripled in the recent past from 68 Mbps to
the current 200 Mbps.

4) Online visibility of the University has improved over the years with
staff uploading more of their research publications to online journals.

5) ICT Service Catalog has extended from provision of basic internet and
mailing services to automation of business processes such as tuition
collection (Mak-pay),payslips,Lib-hub processes (Library functions such as
book cataloging,digitization),development of research management systems
(gradtrack) among others.

Challenges;

1) User demand has out-grown ICT service provision at Mak and the
University should plan on scaling up ICT infrastructure to meet the ever
growing and sophisticated user community.

2) Bandwidth will always be a finite resource due to the growing number of
users and changing trends in online behavior.Users are more interested in
highly graphical and real-time applications (video,audio etc) than just
email access. Makerere is currently running at only a third (1/3) of the
required Bandwidth (600 Mbps) and this places strain on the resource
resulting into average user experience.

3) DICTS ICT projects have mostly been donor funded.The University should
put in place measures to ensure sufficiency of funds for recurrent ICT
costs as well as progressive growth of ICT resources.This includes
maintenance,repairs and upgrade of ICT infrastructure as well as
development of professional ICT skills.

While the list of challenges might be larger than the stated
three,Makerere has made great strides in incorporating ICTs in it's
business functions.However, more is still needed to fully identify with
the 21st century which is highly ICT driven.This will require the
University to highly prioritize ICT and integrate it in every University
business process from research to utilities,and this calls for better
financial commitment and a conducive environment for ICT projects to
thrive.