Reframing the Perceived Changing Roles of Academic Deans in Makerere University

Abstract

Academic deans are important in higher education institutions for they nurture, facilitate growth and development, set and uphold high standards for faculty, staff and students. They create a positive work and learning environment within the schools that they head yet the challenging and complex environment in which they are working is financially constraining. However, such conditions would necessitate understanding how academic deans perceive their changing roles and how they reframe their perceived changing roles in Makerere University. This study was guided by two objectives: (1) to explore how academic deans perceive their changing roles in Makerere University; (2) to examine how academic deans reframe their perceived changing roles in Makerere University. This study was based on the interpretive world view, subscribing to the transcendental phenomenology of Edmund Husserls which states that those who have experienced a phenomenon can give meaning to it. This study too draws on interpretive methods. This study specifically opted for a single case study design because of the need for in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under exploration. Biglans’ typology of academic disciplines was used to select the schools within colleges from which study participants were selected. These participants were academic deans selected from the schools from the four disciplinary fields including soft pure, soft applied, hard applied and hard pure and as heads of schools in their respective colleges and were purposively selected and were interviewed until data saturation. Data analysis followed thematic analysis whereby two themes including complex and frames emerged as perceptions and reframing of academic deans’ changing roles in Makerere University. It was therefore concluded that the perceptions of academic deans as regards their changing roles in Makerere University were hectic, multiple, financially constraining as well as being affected by situational politics and these perceptions were attributed to the strategic direction of the university, contemporary changes in the academic environment and growth of the university in terms of student numbers. Findings also indicated that the political frame was mainly used in science based- disciplines, while the least exploited frame was the symbolic perspective which was attached to religious beliefs. In this study, I recommended that academic deans identify money generating projects to allow the smooth running of schools. The other recommendation is that there is need for academic deans to engage in the use of the political frame this will help in solving the financial constraints