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School of Public Health
College of Health Sciences, Makerere University

Meet Edson Mwebesa the first graduand in the pioneer class of Master of Biostatistics at Makerere University  

Posted on : Friday, May 28, 2021

Mwebesa

At the just-concluded 71st graduation ceremony at Makerere University, Edison Mwebesa, 36, became the first and only graduand from the pioneer class of Master of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health, with support from the DELTAS Sub-Saharan Africa-Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) Training Program.

Mwebesa hails from Bugarama Village, Rwengoma Parish, in Ruhaama County Ntungamo District. He went to Ruhaama Primary School, and Ruhaama Secondary School for his O’ level before joining Mbarara Allied School for advanced level education.

He went to Kyambogo University where he obtained a first-class degree in Bachelor of Science in Education, as a Mathematics major. He worked briefly as teaching assistant at Muni University in Arua City in West Nile sub-region before enrolling for the Master of Biostatistics Program.

He won a scholarship from the DELTAS SSACAB training programme which was funded by WELLCOME TRUST of UK partnership with the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA). The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg was the prime holder of the program while Makerere University and a few other African universities were members of the consortium.

He obtained a CGPA of 4.86 in a Masters in Biostatistics at Makerere University.

“I enjoyed my time studying at MakSPH. My fellow students, lecturers, and administrators were all very supportive. The course content was spot on, practical, and real-life examples were always used during the lectures,” said Mwebesa.

Adding that; I believe this course will not only benefit me but the community around me and Uganda as a whole. My calling is teaching and research, I believe with this Master’s degree, doors will be open for me. This course will surely also help as I look for Ph.D. opportunities.”

Following his graduation, Mwebesa notes that COVID-19 further underscores the need to have several biostatisticians and epidemiologists in Uganda and beyond.

 “I recommend this course to anyone who qualifies for it and is interested.  Its relevance cannot be underestimated, now and in the future. Our pioneering class recommended that a course unit in research methods and scientific writing be included,” says Mwebesa.

About Masters of Biostatistics

In the 2018/2019 academic year, the School of Public Health, at Makerere University launched the Master of Biostatistics (also known as MBIO) training program owing to the limited analytical and biostatistician expertise in Uganda to produce quality research output.  

Biostatistics is the application of statistical techniques in the biology and health sciences field, including medicine and public health. Its foundation is the mathematics of variability and it encompasses the science of designing quantitative research studies and other data collections, managing and analyzing data, and interpreting the results.

The program at Makerere University is meant to produce biostatisticians with practical skills to manage the changing data analysis challenges in addition to providing an understanding of underlying statistical concepts and the application of statistical methods to solve problems in the health sciences.

Until then, Ugandans opting for master’s level training in Biostatistics had to travel abroad. Within  the region, it was only the University of Nairobi in Kenya that had a master’s level training in Biostatistics.

It is therefore not surprising that when the program was launched, a total of 21 applications were received, out of which 15 students were admitted, a high number especially for a new science course of its kind. 

According to Uganda’s 2015/16-2019/20 health sector development plan, it emphasizes the importance of research; and in the case of quantitative research, biostatistics is one of the most important skills needed.

Dr. Nazarius Tumwesigye, an associate professor and founding director of the program says the Master of Biostatistics will generate a pool of practically skilled health data analysts that will lead to high-quality research, that is locally relevant and can easily translate to policy.

Globally, Schools of Public Health teach biostatistics as one of the key pillars of research and several of them run undergraduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. level biostatistics programs.

However, prior to this course, MakSPH used to only teach biostatistics as modules in undergraduate and post-graduate programs until this Master’s program was introduced.

The MBIO program is spearheaded by the Program Director:  Professor David Guwatudde with assistance from Dr. John M. Ssenkusu. Financial support to start the Program was provided by Wellcome Trust, UK, via the DELTAS Africa SSACAB Training Program under Associate Professor Nazarius M. Tumwesigye as Country Principal Investigator who was also the founding Director of the program. The MBIO program is housed in the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

By Davidson Ndyabahika & Melody Kukundakwe

The writer is the communications officer at Makerere School of Public Health. For more information Email: dndyabahika@musph.ac.ug 

 

 

 

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