Open University welcomes new commonwealth distance-learning scholarship students from Uganda

Twelve Ugandan development workers will start studying The Open University’s MSc in Development Management in November this year.  The twelve, selected in May from over 100 applicants, will be recipients of Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships which cover fees for the course and also fund face-to-face workshops conducted by Open University tutors in Kampala for each of the six modules making up the course.

For Scholarship recipients, the course is run by the OU’s Development Policy and Practice (DPP) group in partnership with a Ugandan organisation, the Kulika Educational Trust, which promotes organic farming in Uganda. Kulika’s agricultural development programmes will provide one focus for the study of sustainable development that will be at the heart of the course.

Richard Pinder, Qualification Lead, said: “Scholars will build up a range of development management skills and, in the final year of the three-year MSc, will undertake projects aimed at generating models for implementing Uganda’s sustainable development goals.

“This cohort of Scholars is following a well-trodden path. Together with Kulika, we were awarded our first Commonwealth Scholars in 2006, and have been successful in our joint bids for Scholarships in all but two of the following years. Well over 100 Ugandan development workers have shared in a scheme that was – and still is – aimed at building capacity in Uganda’s development sector.”

The Scholars come from civil society agencies working in different fields, including education, climate change, health, water and sanitation, rural development, human rights, gender equality. In keeping with the core underlying principles of the course – that development is always negotiated between a range of interested parties, and depends on the building of appropriate and effective inter-organisational relationships – Scholars will be encouraged not only to pursue their individual learning but also to share that learning within their organisations and within their networks.  Their final projects will offer opportunities to turn shared learning into shared practice.

For more information about The Open University’s MSc in Development Management, see the new video featuring MSc students talking about their experiences of the studying.