For a person who never thought of being an administrator at UCU, Joy Turyamwijuka considers her new position humbling. She was appointed Head of Department Development Studies and the office comes with both extra hard work and excitement.

“I know I am dealing with a big department but also it’s a chance for me to contribute more than ever to UCU,”  she affirms, adding that when her first contract ended, she wondered what she had  done with her time at UCU but now she has a chance to do anything she had left undone.
She hopes to boost research in the department by running active research groups. During her tenure, she also hopes to effect self-study materials.
“ I hope to encourage special partnership projects to improve on teaching materials,” she adds.
Joy went to Hornby School for Primary and O’level, and later to Bweranyangi girls for A’ level. She joined Makerere in 1991 and studied Bachelor of Arts in Social studies, majoring in sociology and political science. In 1996, Joy worked as a child welfare officer for Kigezi Diocese and in 2003, as a Child Development Officer at St. Luke Church of Uganda in Ntinda.
For fifteen months, she was at the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands, pursuing a Maters in Development studies.
In August 2003, she joined UCU as a part-time Lecturer in the Development Studies Department and after a year, went on full time contract. She has coordinated Post graduate Diploma in Development Studies and Masters in Development Studies programmes.
 She believes that everyone in the Department has the capacity needed to make a difference. “ It’s up to us to make a difference in the world of academia by being innovative, active in research and improve on teaching methods,” she says.
Joy is married, with two sons, Samuel, 10 and Simon 5. “I teach population, so I have to live by example,” she says about the number and spacing of her children.