The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The management of Makerere University Press is pushing for elevation to a directorate so as to attract funding. The University Press was re-launched with three publications in 2019 following 19 years of inactivity stemming from under-funding.
Dr. Samuel Siminyu, the managing editor of the university press, says that they run under the mandate of supporting staff and students with publishing books and need a minimum of Shillings 1 Billion annually for their activities.
Before the relaunch, Makerere University would allocate the printing press only Shillings 500 million but reduced the funding when it didn’t make a profit. However, three years down the road, Dr. Siminyu, says that the funding fluctuates between Shillings 250 and 500 Million.
While the Press currently runs under the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training, Dr. Siminyu notes that to be able to favorably compete with highly recognized academic publishing houses, it needs to be answerable directly to the Top Management.
He noted that attempts to have the press registered with the Association of American University Presses, which is an avenue for winning grants have been in vain because they only take in those at the level of the directorate.
Despite the hardships in re-establishing the printing press in the past three years, it has been able to produce 10 publications some of which include: “What I saw When I died by Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, Runyakitara Language Studies by Oswald K Ndoleriire, Moving Back into the future by Dominica Dipio and HIV/AIDS in Uganda: Challenges and Achievements by James Kiwanuka Tondo among others.
The press has been able to at least publish three books each year although its target is to publish eight books each year. The nonprofit printing press according to Dr. Siminyu depending on the characteristics of a book to be published such as color, book size, and pictures among others, spends between Shillings 50,000 to 200,000 per copy as the cost of production.
For sale, the book costs between Shillings 20,000 to Shillings 50,000 whereas the press targets to only recover printing costs. This is unlike the case with private publishers where the books could go up to Shillings 120,000 per copy on sale. The University Press operates under three modes including free publishing services, partial payment, and full payment. This is dependent on what the author desires.
With the meager budget, Dr. Siminyu said that the press has been able to employ one editor instead of four as had previously been the case. In the meantime, the managing editor the management has submitted a proposal to the university for a slot as there is an ongoing restructuring program.
Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, who highly commends Dr. Siminyu for his resilience with the acknowledgment that the press has been struggling, noted that it is deserving of a sustainable structure.
Some of the directorates at Makerere are the Gender and Main Streaming Directorate, Directorate of ICT Supports, Estates and Works Directorate, and Internal Audit Directorate among others.
Professor Kiwanuka Tonda, a lecturer at North Carolina State University and one of those that have published through the university press noted such local entities are good for documenting essential occurrences in Uganda for future generations.
“I encourage the academia to do research and publish through such avenues to educate the young generation on the present and future based on past experiences.” Dr. Siminyu also emphasizes that the publishing house has commonly been taken to be under the university printery, which is not so. The university press is only a client to the printery for printing services of its finished products.
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