“A university with a few Associate Professors and senior academic staff will always have challenges.” University Communications Manager , Ojok James Onono
By Willy Chowoo
Gulu City-Gulu University has promoted nine senior lecturers to the rank of Associate Professor, marking a significant milestone in strengthening the institution’s academic capacity.
Speaking during a press briefing, the University’s Communications Manager, Ojok James Onono, described the promotions as a major achievement for the institution, which has long grappled with limited senior academic staff.
“I am here because this is a big success that we were able, at once, to at least get about nine people promoted from the rank of Doctor to Associate Professor,” Onono said.
He noted that staffing and professional development have historically been a challenge for the university, given its status as a growing institution. However, the latest promotions signal progress toward building a robust academic workforce.
“A university with a few Associate Professors and senior academic staff will always have challenges. But now this is a milestone… we can report that now we have nine fresh Associate Professors,” he added.
The newly promoted Associate Professors include Dr. Okello James from the Department of Mental Health in the Faculty of Medicine; Dr. Olanya David Ross from the Department of Public Administration under the Faculty of Business and Development Studies; and Dr. Kalule Wamala Stephen from Rural Development Agribusiness in the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment.
Others are Dr. Juliana A. Obika from the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies; Dr. Olido Kenneth from the Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship; Dr. Ofoyuru Denis Thaddeus from Educational Planning and Management in the Faculty of Education and Humanities; Dr. Opiro Robert from the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science; and Dr. Okello Collins, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, from the Department of Biosystems Engineering.
The ninth promotee, Dr. Sidonia Angom, who also serves as Task Force Chair at Moroto University, was equally elevated to the rank of Associate Professor.
Onono emphasised that academic promotions at the university follow a rigorous and merit-based process.
“For the academic staff, their promotion is not so automatic. You come under rigorous processes. You need to do peer review. You need to write peer review articles. You need to supervise both Master’s and PhD students, among others… including also having a project,” he explained.
The promotions bring the total number of Associate Professors
at Gulu University to 23, alongside 10 full professors.
In addition, three staff members were promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer. These include Dr. Nono Denis from Biosystems Engineering in the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment; Dr. Atube Francis from the Science Education Department under the Faculty of Education and
Humanities; and Dr. Abola Bennard from the Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Science.
Onono said the developments reflect the university’s steady progress in academic excellence and its commitment to building a strong foundation of senior scholars to support teaching, research, and mentorship.
The promotions come as the university closes its financial year, signaling a renewed focus on strengthening human resource capacity to meet growing academic demands.
Gulu University has 657 staff with the biggest numbers in academic, 273 (41.6%) of the staffing at the university .
