“MUARIK has a good environment. Why not turn this research institute into a graduate school for all MSc and PhD programmes? MUBS has succeeded by creating such a school headed by the dean,” Okello emphasized.

Speaking at the orientation of the 6th batch of the Makerere Regional Centre for Crop Improvement (MaRCCI) graduate students at Kabanyoro , prof. Okello said turning MUARIK into a graduate institution will increase the research output in terms of publications and graduate students as well as improving on  Makerere University‘s visibility.

According to Owiny, the institute has a capacity of over 500 graduate students, who cannot be handled at the main campus. He added most of their research is conducted from at Kabanyoro which will add upon their numbers.

“This in one way answers the quest for Makerere to be a research-led university,” he said.

He further urged students to avoid dirty politics and compromising situations and places.

“What we need here are student hostels and university buses running in intervals to allow those moving for lectures plan accordingly and also make lives of international students easy.”

However, the professor condemned  supervisors who are ineffective and lazy which affects student’s completion time.