University student-centered outreach for rural innovations and community transformation in northern Uganda

Abstract

In Uganda, while Universities are considered centers of knowledge creation and dissemination, their explicit role in economic development is largely less developed. Gulu University, at its inception sought to respond to this concern and positioned itself for community engagement as summarized in its motto of “For Community Transformation”. As such, at its Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, curricular designs have been emphatic of Student-Centered Outreach services. In one of the existing programs, the Bachelor of Agriculture, the curriculum provides for attachment of students to smallholder farmers in the radius of 10 km from the University campus to which they regularly visit and interact for the whole of their final year of study. Recently, the faculty sought to restructure the management of student field attachment and in the new design supported by Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), field attachment will be starting right from year one of study. However, little is known on the design of Gulu University’s Student-Centered Outreach model and how it is impacting on the farming community, the students and other university stakeholders. Therefore, this study set out to shed light on the design of this outreach model, provide a description of the institutional environment in which Gulu University attaches students. Preliminary findings from a synthesis of case studies reveal that the approach used in the model is not only attractive to farmers as evidenced by a growing demand for student attachment, but also enables the students to get real world experience in agriculture. It is recommended that Universities integrate ICT for extension in their community engagement efforts to enhance the efficiency in the student practical training and community transformation processes.