dc.identifier.citation | Adebua, A., Oriangi, G., Abola, B., Malinga, G. M., Ezati, B., & Amone, C. (2024). Perspectives from the Local Community on Strategies for Community Transformation in Uganda’s Public Universities. East African Journal of Education Studies, 7(2), 439-452. | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | Several Universities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) rarely have a clearly defined
strategy for transforming communities. This is partly because some are still built
on colonial models, which place a strong focus on theory, rote learning, and
memorisation, where learners duplicate the content during examinations with little
or no impact on the community. As a result, the surrounding communities continue
to grapple with high levels of poverty, illiteracy, poor housing, disease, and poorquality health and hygiene. This study explores the strategies Gulu University is
using to transform the post-conflict community of Gulu City, northern Uganda. A
cross-sectional research design was used involving 390 households. Selfadministered questionnaires were employed to collect data on community
perceptions of the operationalisation of the different strategies employed by Gulu
University to transform the community. Descriptive statistics was used to
determine the most outstanding strategies and their associated variables, while chisquare test was performed to assess the relationship between community
perception of the existence of Gulu University and the strategies of community
transformation. Findings revealed that, first, Gulu University’s strategy of
knowledge application has been perceived by the surrounding community to have
worked well by increasing employment opportunities, providing young people
with opportunities for meaningful livelihood activities, reducing crime, and
fostering enterprise development in the surrounding community. Second, the
strategy of partnerships and community projects has paid off by providing
scholarships to help community members further their education. However, there
is still more to be done in terms of knowledge generation strategy through skill
training, knowledge transmission strategy through technology transfer, primary
health care, better farming engagements, and innovative business services, as well
as partnerships and community projects strategy via enterprise development.
Furthermore, findings indicated that there was a significant association between
community perceptions of transformation and the existence of Gulu University.
The findings highlight potential areas of focus for Gulu University and other
Ugandan universities for formulating policies that higher institutions of learning
can employ to transform communities. Besides, future research should explore the
dimensions of community transformation that influence the role of higher
institutions of learning in transforming communities. | en_US |