The Directorate of Higher Degrees and Research (DHDR) in collaboration with the Directorate of Research, Innovation, Consultancy and Extension (DRICE) on Wednesday, 11th June, 2025 held an interactive session with Prof. Muhammed Ngoma, Vice Chancellor dubbed ‘Re-thinking Graduate Training at Kampala International University’.

Held at Kampala International University (KIU), Main Campus, Iddi Basajjabalaba Memorial Library, the session focused on training and supervision of Doctoral students in a bid to attain good quality PhD graduates.

Kickstarting the session, Dr. Mundu Mustafa, Deputy Vice Chancellor Finance and Administration, Assistant DVC Research, Innovation, Consultancy and Extension (RICE) welcomed all PhD supervisors in attendance and noted that the journey of research starts the moment one sits in a Research Methodology class which lays ground for research and a lifetime of ground-breaking insights.

“Do not assume that your PhD students are ready, start off by training them and improving their ability to research and create good quality PhDs and researchers because it is not about the number of publications but rather the quality of publications,” he added.

In his presentation, Prof. Ngoma, Vice Chancellor, highlighted that the quality of PhD graduates is highly dependent on the quality of doctoral training received during the years of study. “The Doctoral program breeds graduates that are morally upright, innovative and creative so it is in our best interest that we maintain that such that the PhD does not lose value,” he added.

To attain the best results, the Vice Chancellor recommended an onboarding program for PhD students where they are briefed about what to expect during their Doctorate journey and the need for support systems in the years of study before they start classes.

“In pursuit of a PhD, most students are under the pressure to complete and graduate instead of learning. An onboarding program in this case notifies the doctoral student that graduation is just an event but what is rather important is the skill set and transfer of knowledge attained upon completion of the program,” Prof. Ngoma said.

On completing the doctoral program, he stressed that the graduate should be a critical thinker and have logical reasoning to spot a problem and come up with a solution.

“For maximum results, before a student presents their topic, they ought to know why they are interested in that particular area of study, identify the gap or problem and point out possible solutions,” he added, noting, “there is need to also train our learners to create policy papers from their research since one of the values of a PhD graduate is the ability to draft policies and analyse them”.

Issuing final remarks, Prof. Israel Olusegun Obaroh, Director DHDR, advised PhD supervisors to continue to challenge their students to produce quality research and publications. “As the Directorate, we will hold chapter-by-chapter training seminars for our students to guide them as they do their research from chapter one of introducing the topic to the final chapters of presenting findings and recommendations,” he concluded.

The chapter-by-chapter seminar series will be in addition to the International Research and Development Conference (IRDeC) scheduled for 13th-17th October, 2025, at the KIU Main Campus under the theme, “Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Capacity Building and Global Sustainability”.