Makerere University: The Department of Plant Sciences, Microbiology and Biotechnology (PMB) under the College of Natural Sciences (CONAS has offered an MSc program in Botany for 30 years. During this period, this program has been run based on five different tracks including “Microbiology and plant pathology”. In January 2022, the course units under this track were proposed to run under a new stand-alone MSc program “MSc Plant Pathology and Microbiology” (PPMB). The processes of approving this new PPMB program are 90% complete awaiting approval by the University council in March 2024. Full approval is expected around June 2025 by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE), a body that regulates higher education in Uganda. The PPMB program is strong in plant pathology, incorporating advances in plant pathology, disease diagnostics, plant disease processes, epidemiology, climate change, and addresses specific hallmarks of plant pathology under tropical conditions. However, the programme is supported by only 4 PhD holders at the department, 3 MSc holders and 1 technician. Infrastructure capacity is lacking to support the upgraded program, and the staff to student ratio is very low. While there are good internet connections, excellent library resources, DNA sanger sequencing platform, ELISA reader and traditional PCR systems, there is a lack of consumables for efficient utilisation of these pieces of equipment to support education in plant pathology. Staff need training on technical usage of the DNA sequencer as a specialised equipment for diagnostics in plant pathology. To facilitate field-based on-site testing of pathogens, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays for on-site detection of pathogens such as viruses is a highly preferred and recommended technology, but this is lacking at the department and the entire University. Because of the need for real-time diagnostics under field conditions, imaging systems/technology for disease symptoms to facilitate accurate identification of diseased plant communities is also essential but lacking.