Makerere University as a public institution was established in 1922 initially as a technical college training students in mechanics, building and carpentry, and later began offering courses in Agriculture, Medical care, teacher training and Veterinary Sciences.
The transformation from a technical college to a fully-fledged university offering degrees and diplomas did not occur until 1963 when Makerere became the University College of East Africa, and a national university in 1970.
Since then, and being the premier and one of the oldest universities on the African continent, Makerere has over the years developed a reputation as a world class university in graduate training and research. The numbers of graduate students have progressively been on the rise.
Currently, the university is host to a graduate student population of over 4,000. As a result of the rising number of graduate students, the university Council established the School of Postgraduate Studies in 1994 which was later turned into the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT) in 2010 to coordinate graduate training, research and outreach for the university.
In the execution of this mandate, the DRGT is assisted by two boards of Senate that oversee the implementation of the above functions – the Board of Graduate Studies and the Board of Research and Publications.
The DRGT is headed by the Director assisted by two Deputy Directors – one in charge of graduate training and the other for research, publications and knowledge transfer partnerships. The university, however, operates within the national framework for higher education and research.
Over time, the DRGT has overseen a number of research programs including the Sida, NORAD, Carnegie Cooperation of New York, CAPREX, and EU projects.
