About 40 PhD students from the College of Humanities & Social Sciences(CHUSS) were on 16th May 2022 retooled on the guidelines and expectations from the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training(GRGT).
Besides reviewing guidelines and timelines to funded students, DRGT requirements and expectations, the graduate workshop was also aimed at equipping students with knowledge on how to organise proposals and dissertations electronically as they navigate through their graduate studies.
The blended workshop held physically and virtually at the Makerere University CHUSS Smart Room was compulsory to all the Gerda-Henkel and Andrew W Mellon Fellows who have not yet submitted their dissertations for examination.
“One of the major items is to remind them of the DRGT regulations of doing research. Sometimes in the excitement of admission, they do not read the joining rules very closely, and they go missing certain timelines. For instance, there is a provision in the rules which says that they have to provide progress reports every six months and most of them don’t and we meet challenges when they complete. They are supposed to register every year but most of them do not care.
The other part of the training is how to manage their work using online tools like managing references and quotations. It has been a challenge that they get a book or referencing in year one as they are about to submit, they do not have the details of the book and the quotation”, The Projects Coordinator CHUSS, Dr. Nabutanyi, explained.
Dr. Nabutanyi said the college wants to support the students to be able to do their work effectively and without the challenges they would incur while doing it on their own. He also appealed to all students to attend all college and university wide workshops to gain skills useful to their studies and their future life as academics.
