Administrative

government should not necessarily drive the TM agendas of the universities, “it should provide the necessary encouragement, support, and direction” (Lazarus et al., 2008, p.

77). In addition, just as MUK should inform the external communities about its mission, activities, priorities, academic programmes, resources and innovations, the government should draw more on the knowledge potential of the university (and other universities) when designing or reviewing national policies, because much as these universities continue to be besieged by several challenges, they (particularly MUK) are the main sites for the production of knowledge and high-level manpower in Uganda.

Supportive leadership

Despite the existing institutional arrangements at MUK to support networking and partnerships between the university and the external communities, interview data show that some members of the academic and administrative staff were of the view that the top leadership of the university (e.g., the vice chancellor) was not doing enough to promote the TM, although the institutionalisation of the TM requires the support and vision of the top leadership (Beere et al., 2011; Brukardt et al., 2006a). In fact, since the top leaders of the university, especially the vice chancellor and the principals of the colleges, can influence the budget, the academic programmes and other aspects of the university and the colleges, their open support for the TM would help to address the concerns of the cautious, sceptical and resistant members of academic staff (Vidal et al., 2002) and the external communities regarding the commitment of the university to the TM. Therefore, although the top leadership of the university has other pressing issues to attend to, it should openly support the TM; offer guidance to the academic staff, students and the external communities; and mobilise funding to support and help to entrench the TM so that the relevant structures, policies and proposals can survive leadership changes. In fact, the university should initiate capacity-building programmes aimed to enlighten its current and future leaders about the TM, because, as the interview data show, some heads of departments and principals of colleges are not well acquainted with the TM yet are expected to guide, supervise and evaluate their fellow members of academic staff. According to R22, a head of a department, When they appoint [a member of] academic staff, they tell her or him that the head of the department will give [him or her] other responsibilities, yet they never train a head of a department. … I am supposed to act like an accountant, like a bursar, a policymaker, a decision-maker, an administrator and everything you can think of, but not once have they taken me to a workshop to at least enlighten me on how to deal with some of these responsibilities. It is really trial-and-error management on the part of the heads of departments of this university. (Personal communication, April 19, 2012.)

In addition to enhancing the capacities of its leaders, the university should enlighten its staff about the TM, particularly about what constitutes the TM; how to evaluate the contributions of the academic staff to the TM; and the existing policies and structures for supporting and/or coordinating the TM. Since the academic staff of any university are, as Beere et al. (2011) note, “the researchers, the advisors, the consultants, and the teachers who work with the community” (p. 96), their involvement is critical to the successful institutionalisation of the TM (Harkavy & Hartley, 2012). Accordingly, MUK should provide its academic staff with information about the TM because the institutionalisation of the TM starts “by making sure that the individuals who are part of the organisation understand the meaning of engagement and the challenges it will bring” (Brukardt et al., 2006a, p. 12). The aim of diffusing information to the academic staff would be to sensitise

those who are either uninformed about the TM and/or uninvolved in TM activities and to enhance the knowledge and understanding of those who are informed and/or involved in TM-related activities about the objectives of the TM, the priorities of the university, the available funding opportunities and so forth. To achieve these goals, the university could do the following:

1. Organise public lectures, symposia⁹³ and presentations at departmental and college meetings and training workshops to engender necessary awareness among the university community (Ajayi et al., 1996) about the TM. TM-related issues could also be included in agendas for university meetings; and

2. Create communication channels—such as a website, an e-magazine, a brochure and newsletter—to disseminate TM-related information and ensure that the brochures, annual reports and news releases of the university and the university colleges accentuate and support the TM.

In fact, the interview data show that the university should familiarise its staff and students with the needs of the external communities and help them to understand the TM and its justifications, objectives, performance indicators and potential benefits before it can convince the external communities about its plans for, and commitment to, the TM.

Accordingly, R16, a professor at the university, noted,

We [the university] would need more workshops; in fact, I am going to propose it now. … First, [to] try to analyse what we have been doing, what we are involved in, and how best it can be fulfilled. I think, the onus is, first, on the university leadership, then from leadership to the staff generally, to the students and then we can see how best to implement [the TM]. (Personal communication, April 10, 2012.)

Funding and incentives

Although MUK has some personnel and organisational structures that carry out and/or coordinate TM-related activities, the data show that the university does not adequately finance the TM; yet community outreach and engagement requires funding to cover direct costs (the organisation of public lectures, the transportation of students to the field, field attachment-related costs and the production and dissemination of information) and indirect costs (e.g., course release time for the academic staff) (Jacobson et al., 2004). Therefore, although funding alone cannot address all the challenges to the full institutionalisation of the TM, the university should commit more and sustainable financial resources to the TM. Such budgets can be utilised to support field-based learning, field attachment and community-based research; fund release time for the academic staff to engage in TM-related activities; sustain and support the existing organisational structures;

93 For example, the lunchtime seminar series organised by the College of Education and External Studies (see http://cees.mak.ac.ug/cees-seminar-series.html).

organise training sessions for the staff and students; and initiate and sustain university–

community partnerships. Otherwise, most TM-related activities will continue to be short- term projects that rely on external funding and the benevolence of the individual members of academic staff and students; yet, the institutionalisation of the TM requires that the university commit internal financial resources. According to Hollander et al. (2002),

Nothing is more common than for a college or university to recognize the benefits of engagement—and to try to capitalize on those benefits—without making any substantive investment in the resources such engagement requires. Many potentially fine programs have been initiated with the help of grants, only to crumble away once their external source of funding has dried up. … Internal institutional funding is, therefore, one significant measure of an institution’s commitment to engagement.

(p. 39–40.)

The researcher is cognisant of the fact that teaching and research are equally underfunded (see Section 7.4 for details); therefore, this suggestion does not imply that the university should focus its funding on the TM and ignore its other activities. Instead, the university should enhance some of the commercial aspects of the TM, for instance, consultancy and continuing education; fundraise for the TM; and set aside a fund, no matter how small it might be, to support the selected TM-related activities of the academic staff and the students. The funding should be reserved for activities and projects that conform to, and support, the TM agenda and targets of the university and the corresponding university colleges.