PRESS STATEMENT
7th September 2021
Lira University releases the 1st Magazine Issue, full of success stories, academic programmes
I wish to happily announce that Lira University has released the 1st Issue of its magazine, The BeaconNet, for circulation. The magazine has amazing and all-inclusive contents, aimed at communicating our success stories to the general public.
This is a tremendous milestone that will go a long way to define Lira University as an academic community ready to deploy its multicorpus arsenal of knowledge to the progressive cause of humanity. The local, national, and international audiences willing to participate in joint ventures of knowledge production, exchanges, and collaboration will find this magazine quite useful.
We also hope that this Magazine publication will go a long way in communicating what we are doing, our academic programmes, health services and development activities to the university stakeholders and community. The soft copy can be accessed from our website: The BeaconNet Magazine, Issue 1 and the University’s social media pages.
I am grateful to all members of staff, students and other stakeholders of Lira University for the remarkable efforts they have made towards the development of the university.
Established in 2015, as a Public University, Lira University has established a rich tradition of excellence across a broad range of academic disciplines. We are building on this tradition by ensuring that our students receive the best possible quality of teaching and research mentorship from highly qualified and experienced academic staff.
Lira University aims to produce graduates who are competitive in the human resource market, expand its infrastructure, have adequate skilled and competent staff, improve its resource utilization and accountability, improve quality of teaching and training, expand the frontiers of community outreaches, and enhance innovations, research and publications.
In order to achieve these noble aims, the university shall ensure that opportunities are offered to students to increasingly have access to fellowships, scholarships, seminars, workshops and regular engagement with visiting scholars and influential thinkers in the academia. Our teaching is designed to give students exposure to the latest ideas and developments in their respective areas of study and to nurture home grown talents and abilities in academic and non-academic fields.
Our Mission situates us in an academic and professional world without boundaries: “To provide access to quality higher education, research and conduct professional training for the delivery of appropriate health services directed towards sustainable healthy community and environment”. This will in the long run, contribute to the attainment of the University Vision: “A Beacon Centre of Applied Sciences and Technology”. To that end, Lira University fully participates as an active member of the global intellectual world by educating future citizens tailored to think globally and be relevant in a world without frontiers.
The university has an excellent hospitality culture that accommodates cultural, linguistic, racial, and gender diversities, a multicultural amalgam of staffs and students, as well as the nonpartisan, nondiscriminatory access to opportunities and resources offered by the university. This makes Lira University one of the most promising academic and research destinations in the country.
I also wish to note that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented interruptions to educational institutions globally including in Uganda. The abrupt and prolonged closure of educational institutions have caused a lot of uncertainty among stakeholders on the future of education and quality of training, research and community engagement.
That notwithstanding, Lira University has been undertaking online teaching and learning through the blended Open Distance e-Learning model. During the first wave of Corvid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns to contain the spread of infections, the University mobilized a team to spearhead the adoption of online teaching and learning; and was among the first universities to meet the minimum requirements set by National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). Many thanks to both the teaching and non-teaching staff for facing up to the challenge. We are ever ready to do what it takes to effectively and efficiently enforce the teaching and learning processes of our students in this period of the pandemic.
I wish to appreciate the 2nd University Council, chaired by Prof. Joel Okullo Odom for passing policies and programmes being implemented by the technocrats to ensure effective and efficient service delivery to our clients. I must also appreciate all the Council members, Top Management, and Council and Senate Committees for performing their roles as guided by the law.
Finally, I wish to extend my appreciation and gratitude to members of the 2nd University Council, technical and support staffs for working as a team to achieve the university objectives, Mission and Vision. Together we are stronger and stronger daily.
Thank you,
Prof. Jasper Ogwal Okeng
VICE CHANCELLOR/LIRA UNIVERSITY
