The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) has introduced a new program, Master of Science in Renewable Energy. The new program will initially consist of 14 pioneer students, 10 of whom are Ugandan, and the remaining students come from Ethiopia and Malawi.
The planned two-year program will run concurrently at Makerere and Dar-es-Salaam universities. By 2010, the program should be sustainable, says Bjorg Leite, the Norweigian ambassador and Reinhard Bucholz, the German ambassador.
The program will allow students to specialize in five areas of renewable energy with an additional aim to build the required local capacities needed to investigate their countries’ renewable energy options, thereby reducing overwhelming environmental degradation due to over dependence of fossil fuels.
“This is the most relevant program today if we want to develop,” said Dr. Izael da Silva, the Director of the Center for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation. Dr. Albert Rugumayo, the Director of the Electricity for Rural Transformation Program in the Ministry Energy, urged the beneficiaries to be innovative and exemplary.
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